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Copyright N° 



CCEffilGHT BEPOSm 



GENERAL HISTORY 



OF 



SEWARD COUNTY, 



NEBRASKA 



BY 



JOHN H. WATERMAN. 



Beaver Crossing, Nebr. i914 — 15. 



Copyright, 1916, by John H. Waterman 



r6> 7z 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

In writing history of Seward County it has been my desire to produce 
a work of interest to the public and value to the county. All matters of 
history have been truthfully portrayed so far as 1 have been able to present 
them. 1 have not aimed to make it a high grade scholarly production, 
touchmg only the high places in the public attainments and official life of 
the past, but endeavoured to give an unadorned narration of the real modes 
of life and progression of the county from its infancy to full growth and 
maturity. Trusting the worth of the work to stand upon its merits rather 
than upon its flattery of popular sentiment, no church, society, political party 
or enterprise has received advertising reading space in it, while all have 
been fairly and impartially dealt with. 

Like other authors 1 feel that my work is not above, but subject to 
criticism and ask that such be made with an honest purpose alone and that 
the value of the work be considered above its faults. 1 do not disown my 
errors in writing and printing — there are many to be found in this history — 
but 1 am glad to say 1 have endeavored to make everything plain, readable 
and comprehensible. 

Many people expect to find, in a history of any part of the once "W'ild 
and W ooly West," reading matter in line and spirit with the day and age 
covered by the narration. And not wishing to disappoint any one 1 will 
^ay: do not open this history expecting to find accounts of blood curddling 
Indian depredations, buffalo chases and other exciting events. There never 
was any Indian troubles aside from begging and stealing in Seward County 
and of course there is no story of them in this book. There were a few 
buffalo, elk, deer and antelope in the county at the date of its earliest settle- 
ment, but they were driven out by the freighters and early settlers. How- 
ever Indian scares were of frequent occurrence during the period from 1860 

to 187U, but 1 find it difficult to record scares as history. They are not 

■ I ■ ■* 

//* / ^''' - 

DEC 29 i9i6©Gi,A4r)3353 



^\' tangible although real, unavoidable and discouragingly disagreable to the 
.^ early settlers. 

^ In mentioning the passing away of early settlers it was not my intention 

^ to publish obituaries, nor mention the church, lodge or society deceased be- 

\^ longed to nor the previous military service of any comrade soldier, but mer- 

^ ely to mention that part of their life that is connected with the history of 

^ Seward County. And 1 trust there will be no disappointments in regard to 

this memorial feature of the history. 1 feel that my neighbors who shared 

with one another the trials and hardships of pioneer life in that honest, 

honorable and patient endurance which characterized nearly every early 

settler of Seward County, has won a brighter crown than can be given by 

any lodge or church. 

1 wish to thank all who have kindly assisted me in gathering items of 
historical interest for this book. With my forty-six years residence in Sew- 
ard County, during which time the pioneer period has passed and modern 
conditions are speeding well along in years, 1 have many times felt myself 
unable to bring before the public a collection of the historical events which 
are worthy of record and rememberance, and in conclusion of this introduc- 
tion will say my work has been a day and night task which I hope may 
meet the requirements of the most exacting as a history of Seward County. 

Author. 



THE PRAIRIES OUT V^EST, OR 
THE HOME OF MY CHILDHOOD. 

PART I. 
O, who that e'er come from a woodland home- 
Shut in by dark forests like birds in their nest, 
Unmoved by the sight, could look upon the bright 
And boundless prairies spread out in the West? 

Where etherial blue ends the far distant view — 
As though the dim future had ope'd to our sight, 
And we viewed all the space to the end of our race, 
The dark Vales of Sorrow and Hills of Delight. 

Where light zephers race o'er earth's verdant face, 
With coolness refreshing, when weary, to feel. 
Treading waves in the grass and flowers as they pass 
O'er prairies untamed by a husbandman's zeal. 

Where shadows flit by of clouds in the sky — 
And darken an instant, grove, valley and hill; 
Like a fugitive thought that's gone ere its caught, — 
That enters the mind, but escapes from the will. 

PART II. 

O, of all the lands, I ween, that ever 1 have seen, 
I yet love my native prairies the best; 
Where I played by the rills, and rode down the hills, 
In the days of my childhood, afar in the West. 

By day or by night, there are scenes of delight. 
For lovers of Nature, with hearts good and free, — 
But if darkened within by grief, care or sin, 
No pleasure in Eden's sweet bowers we'd see. 

There are sanctums seclueded, where few have intruded. 
And cool, waving meadows, of flowers profuse. 
Deep valleys, bright glades, and beautiful green shades, 
Where poets might sweetly commune with their Muse. 

There are rivers, and rills, and grass carpeted hills, 
Like billows that roll on a storm troubled sea- 
Wild nature is there, in forms the most fair; 
'Tis a land of delight, 'tis the home of the free. 




^uittt M. MnUxitinttr Awtitttr. 



CHAPTER I. 



Introductory. The Vast Plains Area. The Path Finder and his Path the 
Artery of Civilization on the Immense Prairies W^est of the Missouri 
River. Finding (jold in California Establishes the Public High-Way 
Through the \V orld's Richest Agricultural Region. The California 
Trail. 



Of the country forming the present central portion of the 
United States, but Httle was known a half century ago, and 
going back a century we find its immensity in area and agri- 
cultural wealth buried in a gloom of ignorance. The lar^j-e 
rivers had been discovered and in a manner partially ex- 
plored. And some idea of the Rocky mountains had been 
gained, their range vaguely supposed to be impenetrable, 
flanked to their base by and plains and impassible gulfs. 
While immense herds of bulTalo and other wild beasts lived 
and fattened upon the rich grasses of the land, the Indian, 
regardless of the wealth hidden in the rich soil, trod its sur- 
face as lord and king, in search of game. Mountain ranges 
with their peaks capped with perpetual snow frowning down 
from their lofty heights, cast their shadows back from the 
setting sun upon the rich soils covered with luxurant ve^^eta- 
tion while immaginary deserts hid the grand panarama from 
the vision of approaching civilization. 

To the hrst trip across the continent may be charged 
the error forming the illusionary opinion that the bric^htest 
region in America, or the world, amidst which were the great 
state of Nebraska and its region where bright springs and 
flowing vv^ells abounded was a baren and impassable desert. 
What other foundation for this delusive theor}^ taught by 



2 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

the standard geographies and maps of the country, has nev- 
er been made clear to the mind of humanit}'. It may have 
been given to the inteUigent world by Indians, but such in- 
formation would form poor grounds upon which to base the 
instruction and education of the children of a great nation. 

Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made an 
exploring trip under the auspices of the United States gov- 
ernment, from the eastern settlements to the Pacific coast, 
in 1803 and as government employees undoubtedly outlined 
the "Great American Desert." This hazardous trip, accom- 
panied b}' untold suilering and hardshijis, required two 
years and three months of time. And while the problem of 
possible continental transit was solved by this test of endur- 
ance, it could not be considered an overland trip, as the 
route was mostly along the large rivers, assending the Mis- 
souri to the mountains in the north-west and then decend- 
ing the large streams to the coast, leaving the interior re- 
gions unexplored and unknown. 

The Light Alon^ Fremont's Path. 

The birth of real knowledge of the agricultural wealth of 
the western plains came in 1842 when John C. Fremont 
first penetrated the so called desert in search of a route to 
and across the Rocky mountains to the Pacific ocean. On 
this mission the great "Path Finder" made five trips, cover- 
ing a [)eriod of eleven years, on which he and his companions 
endured all manner of harships, at one time subsisting upon 
a diet of horse iiesh for fifty days. But in spite of all diffi- 
culties the world renowned path, which was destined to be- 
come the greatest wild countr}' highway ever known, was 
established, and over which, for a peroid of twenty years, 
many thousands of home and fortune seekers made their 
way to the new found Canaan. 

With the constant extensive increase in population of the 
United States, and the needs of it and the world together, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 3 

the opening up of the coming bread fields of the world, on 
the western phiins, was a mere matter for the work of time. 
BL]t the discover\' of gold in California in 1848 and the grand 
rush on the over-land route to the rich fields in 1849 brought 
forward advanced settlements and new discoveries in regard 
to the value of the country through which the route passed. 
And while the "Path Finder" had established a wdy in ad- 
vance to reach the new gold helds, along that path the trav- 
eling public were taug"nL that the myth desert contained the 
richest and most productive soil upon the face of the earth. 
Fremont's route through the state of Nebraska was along 
the vallex' of the Platte river, passing about forty miles north 
of Seward county. It was reached by inlet routes starting 
at diherent points along the Missouri river, Nebraska Citv in 
the freighting time, being one of the larger shipping points. 
P\om this city the route in general use ran north-west, strik- 
ing the Platte river about thirty miles above its mouth, then 
following the California trail up the val!e3\ But this route 
was found to be unnecessarily a round about way as by it a 
big bend around the counties of Saunders, Butler and Polk 
must be followed in traveling the Platte river route. And to 
avoid this and save many miles of travel a cut-ofi route, 
running nearly due west from Nebraska City to the West 
Blue valley, following it in a north-west course and striking 
the Platte river trail about forty miles east of Fort Kearney 
was surveyed and established in i860 by enterprising citizens 
of the aforesaid city. And along this route the fertile val- 
leys, plains and hills of Seward county were first viewed by 
civilized people, and along this route are the foot-prints of 
early settlement and the transformation of the wild and des- 
olate plains to progressive civilization. 



CHAPTER II. 



Nebraska. Territorial Area and Organization. The State. Area, Rivers, 
Land, Counties Etc. Admission to the Union. Immense Increase 
in Population. Public School System the Best. 



Nebraska was the name given a vast portion of wild 
country, organized and admitted as a territory by the United 
States government in 1854, under the administration of 
President Franklin Pierce. It comprised the present states 
of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Wyo- 
ming and Montana. And under the conditions which Uncle 
Sam assumed the guardian-ship of this great tract of land 
laid the smoldering embers of the civil war, in as much as 
the organic act permitted any portion, or all portions of it to 
be admitted as a slave state or divided into different slave 
states. It must be remembered that it was not slavery as 
it existed, but the extension of that un-Godly system that 
formed the "bone of contention" between the North and the 
South. . And the bills admitting Kansas and Nebraska terri- 
tories under the same possible and probable dark prospects, 
opened and stirred up the strife until it culminated m that 
great, deadly conflict without a parallel in the histor\^ of the 
world. History of the territories would be incomplete with- 
out giving this unwelcome feature a place, and yet it is not 
to be considered only as a legislative blunder. We have fre- 
quently thought that it would be an act of kindness to the 
citizens of those two states, "Kansas and Nebraska," to re- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 3 

rmve the harrowing memories which the mention of their 
name suggests to every one famiHar with their record, by 
an entire and positive change in their names. Kansas was 
the senior territory, and was settled by more Souhtern peo- 
ple who deemed it a part of their rehgion to preve.it N jrth- 
ern emigration into the state by any method of inti nidation 
and murder, resulting in a border ruffian war, in which John 
Brown's three sons were wrongfully slain, their bodies muti- 
lated and shipped to their father in the old home in the east. 

The state contains 77,510 square miles of territory. Nu- 
merous inland and non-navigable rivers flow through it, 
the larger ones being the Platte, Loupe, Elkhorn, Republi- 
can and Blue. These streams water as well as drain the 
state and add to its agricultural resourses their extensive 
valleys, in fertility not only unsurpassed, but unequaled by 
an}^ other vegetable producing land in the world. It has ■ 
a frontage upon the eastern end, along the Missouri river of 
over three hundred miles. It contains ninety large counties. 
Four of which. Lincoln, Custer, Holt aud Sheridan, eath 
has about as much territory as the state of Deleware or 
Rhode Island while both of those states might be set down 
inside of Cherry county and not be crowded for room. 

At the lime of its admission as a territory, within the 
limits of its present borders, Nebraska had, perhaps less 
]-)opulation than any one of its counties at the present time. 
In i860 it had a population of 28,841. It was admitted to 
full fellow-ship in the union of states in 1867, the civil war 
having wiped out all possible chance for any further conten- 
tion over the matter of slavery. The 1910 census shows 
a population within the state of 1,192,214. which at the rate 
of its previous increase would undobtedly bring its popula- 
tion up to 1,500,000 at the present date. 

Begining with its first settlement, a great interest was 
taken throughout the entire domain, in the cause of public 



O HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

schools, and a general advance has been made all along the 
line in that direction until the state ranks foremost in educa- 
tion, and the dark days in its history, when the shadows of 
illiteracy as a well known companion of slavery, hung like a 
pall over its bright land, have passed to oblivion. 



CHAPTER III. 



Seward County — Its Boundries, Territory, Population Etc. Bjav>.'r Cross- 
ing and Vicinity — Its Name, — From What Derived. The Freight 
Route. The Historical Steam Wagon Road. 



Seward county Nebraska, is located in the third tier of 
counties west, or about sixty miles west from the Missouri 
river, and the third tier of counties, or sixty miles north of 
the Kansas state line. It is bounded on the north by Butler 
county, on the east by Lancaster county, in which is the 
state capital, on the south by Saline county and on the west 
by the county of York. It is the best watered and drained 
count}^ in the state of Nebraska, or perhaps any other state. 
The North Blue river, a stream of considerable magnitude, 
resplendent with abundant pure water, enters the county 
in C precmct, in the north-west portion, passing entirely 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA, / 

through it in a south of eastearly direction, passing the south 
Hne of the city of S;nvard, through the villages of Milford 
and Camden. It has several tributaries, of which one only 
may be termed a living stream of water. Lincoln creek is 
a mill stream. It passes into the county from the west, in 
D precinct, or about six miles south of the north-west corner 
of the county, and Hows south-west, passing through twenty 
miles of the county's territory and joining the North Blue 
river just west of Seward. Plum creek and other so-called 
creeks, reaching the uplands, furnish excellent drainage and 
carry away surplus water in wet seasons, after which times 
their mission seems to end and they remain dry. In addi- ' 
tion to the North Blue river, with its tributary, Lincoln creek, 
watering and draining the north half of the county, its coun- 
terpart, the West Blue river enters the county from the 
west, at the north-west cornor of M precinct, six miles north 
of the south-west corner of the county and flowing with but 
little variation from a due east course, traverses the entire 
breadth of the county from west to east, joining the North 
Blue in P precinct in the south-east corner of the county. 
Like the former mentioned Blue, it has numerous drainage 
tributaries, one of which, Beaver creek, approaches a tend- 
ency of a Hving stream. But the tributaries of the West 
Blue, like those of the North Blue, furnish excellent drainage 
for the south half of the county in wet seasons while they do 
not sap the ground in dry seasons. Taking the two rivers, 
passing as they do through the county, with their tributaries 
no better system of water and drainage could be planed for 
any county. 

In the early days Beaver Crossing and vicinity comprised 
the four precincts in the south-west quarter of the county, K, 
L, M and N, with a considerable portion of east York county. 
The name, "Beaver Crossing," was the first name given to 
any point or locality in Seward county a name derived from 



8 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

a natural cause, or matter of fact, forming next to the freight 
route, the second historical object in the county. Beaver 
creek was undoubtedly named by Indians and trappers long 
before there were any settlements of white people near its 
banks. It rises north-west of the city of York in York county 
and flowing south-east enters Seward county in L precmct, 
about two and a half miles north of the south line of that 
precinct and there taking a more southerly course joines the 
West Blue river near the line of L and M precincts about 
two and one-half miles east of the York county line. The 
next important feature in connection with the naming of 
Beaver Crossing is the previously mentioned cut-ofT freight 
route from Nebraska City to its junction with the California 
trail. This route had a due west course from Nebraska City 
to the North Blue river just east of Camden where the first 
bridge in Seward county was made across the North Blue. 
And here the valleys of the North and West Blue rivers 
unite, the latter valley forming the road-bed for one of the 
greatest wild country highways ever known, over which 
thousands of home and fortune seekers were destined to 
pass, a few to success and man}'' to bitter disappoinment. 
After following this valley a short distance the route was 
forced to make a detour to the north on account of the im- 
passable condition of Walnut creek on the bottom lands. 
This creek is one of the wet weather tributaries of the West 
Blue river, and although it is dry during dry seasons, its 
value to the sections it traverses is beyond estimation. It 
rises in L precinct and joines the river m N. A crossing of 
this creek was found about three miles above its mouth, on 
the line between Iv and N precincts, from which point the 
route continued west along the divide in L, re-entering the 
West Blue valley one mile east of Beaver creek. In direct 
line with this trail an excellent fording place for this stream 
was found, where the banks were as naturally adapted to 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 9 

the passage of heavily loaded freight wagons, or prairie 
echooners as they could have been made. The water was 
shallow and the bottom, composed of coarse gravel, was as 
solid as rock and this was Beaver Crossing. 

The historical '"Steam Wagon Road" was established in 
1864. It was roughly worked and prepared for the passage 
of the "steam wagon" which was to cross the great plains, 
conveying a forty horse load of merchandise. But misfor- 
tune seemed pre-eminent in the career of this first iron horse 
for Nebraska and on its trial trip it was wrecked in the ditch 
by the side of the road a short distance west of Nebraska 
City, its starting point, where it was abandoned, being later 
desected for the metal there was in it. And although the 
said iron horse, which had caused the building of so many 
groundless hopes and expectations "sleeps the sleep that 
knows no waking," the road that bore his name lives and 
will continue to live in history as long" as historians write and 
people read history, as one of the great highway's across the 
western plains. But in reality the steam wagon road was 
not an independent and distinct route or road. With the 
exception of a very few miles through Seward county it can- 
not be called b}^ an}^ other name than the original freight 
route or road. It followed the i860 freight route west from 
Nebraska city to near the Seward county line where it left 
the route and made a cut-ofi of a few miles by crossing the 
North Blue river where the city of Milford was shortly after 
located, instead of continuing south to the bridge at Camden. 
It forded the river at this place, continuing west ten miles to 
the Walnat creek crossing where it again united with the 
freight route, continuing as a part of the same, or as might 
properly be said, lost its name. It has never been known 
as the "steam wagon road" west of the Walnut creek cross- 
ing in Seward county. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Seward County s Name. Its Climate. Homestead Law — General Home- 
steads, Soldiers' Homesteads and Railroad Land — Amos Reed's Tract. 
The W'ater — Springs and P'lowing Wells. 

From an examination of geographies and maps of the ter- 
ritory of Nebraska, published about i860, and about the 
tirne of the clearing away of the myths of superstition which 
had previously given the whole area a place upon the maps- 
of the world as a baren desert, we hnd that the territorial 
legislature had given that part of the territory now known as 
Seward county the name of Greene count3\ It has been 
stated that the county was named Cxreene after the name of 
one of its earl}^ settlers, but this is undoubtedly a mistake as 
the county was named previous to any settlement within its 
borders. In his histor\' W. W. Cox says that the county 
was named (jreene in honor of a Missouri statesman by that 
name who proved to be a "rebel," and that as an unorgan- 
ized county it was under the controle of the legislature, which 
decided to prohibit the naming of any of the "sacred soil un- 
der jts controle after the name of a rebel," and the name 
Greene was deliberatly dropped and the honored name of 
Seward, the grand war secretary of state, who as the great 
assistant and adviser of the martyred Lincoln, helped to 
stear the ship of state through the dark days of the rebellion, 
was bestwed upon the county. While the acts of territorial 
legislatures like the acts of all legislatures are open to criti- 
cism, the act that gave this county the name of, and errect- 
ed thereby an everlasting monument to the memory of one of 
the nation's most able and worthy statesmen was one for 
which the citizens of the county should feel thankful, what- 
ever may have been the cause for changing the name. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 11 

The climate of Seward county, in common with that of 
the south half of Nebraska is mild. It is 1,500 feet above 
sea level. This altitude gives it a light, dry atmosphere. 
There is a gradual ascent from the Missouri river to the 
Rocky mountains and the nearer approach to them the less 
there is of rain-fall, which is quite discernible in Seward 
county although only about sixty miles west from the river. 
And while this is true in regard to rain-fall it is the same in 
regard to the snow-fall. Many winters have come and gone 
in the past forty-five years during which scarcely enough 
snow has fallen to cover the ground at any one time which 
has disappeared as quickly in sub-shine as it came. Snow 
is not a natural element in Seward count3\ The snow of 
the county's most severe snow winters was not a native pro- 
duction, but was driven in by strong winds, generally from 
the snow fields of the north-west. And from this quarter 
comes the greater portion of the county's cold weather. 
The mild winters are those of mild winds, more equally di- 
vided in the course of direction, the least from the north or 
northwest. The generally light, dry air affords relief many 
times to those suffering with lung troubles, cases of con- 
sumption coming from the lower and more damp atmosphere 
of the east being entirely cured by a residence in Seward 
county. One case of this kind well known to the writer, 
was that of J. J. Ainsworth who came from Ohio in 1870 
and settled on a homestead in N precinct. Mr. Ainsworth 
was suffering with, and supposed to be in the last stage of 
hereditary consumption when he left his native home in 
Ohio with his wife and several small children, bound for Ne- 
braska by the "prairie schooner" mode of travel. He arriv- 
ed in Seward county in thirty-three days and from the date 
of his arrival until the end of a long life in Nebraska he was 
free from his former affliction. As a matter of comparison 
we will mention a case closely connected with the preceding 



12 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

one, being that of J. J. Ainsvvorth's N^ounger brolher who 
was suffering with the same dread disease when his older 
brother induced him to try the treatment of Nebraska atmos- 
phere. He did so and during his stay in Seward county 
seemed to be on the road to recovery, but becoming discour- 
aged and homesick he returned to Ohio where he succumed 
to his affliction in less than one year. Here is the evidence 
of two as reliable men as ever came to Nebraska, one on his 
death bed, lamenting the fact to his brother who visited him 
that he had not taken that brother's advice and remained in 
Nebraska, while the older one declares: "I wou'd not go 
back to Ohio to reside for the whole state of (Jhio, " 
HOMESTEAD LAY^Z AND HOMESTEADS. 
The homestead law enacted by the United States govern- 
ment in 1862 permitted any person 21 years of age, the 
head of a family or single to enter 160 acres of government 
land as a homestead, and at the end of five years continued 
residence upon said land it should become the real estate 
property of the person making such entry. And it was gen- 
erally understood that government land could not be secured 
under any other condition or consideration than by actual 
settlement and improvement upon it. That these require- 
ments were for a protection of the land from speculators and 
a reserve of it for equal distributaion among present and fu- 
ture settlers. But this understanding was undoubtedly a 
delusion as the government, after the law was enacted, grant- 
ed the C. B. & Q. rail road company every odd section, or 
one-half of the land in a strip forty miles wide through the 
unsettled portion of Nebraska, which grant took in the entire 
county of Seward. And as a further evidence of the "delus- 
ion," Amos Reed, a prominent lawyer of the city of Wash- 
ington, secured a grant from the government of 2,000 acres 
of Seward and York cuunty government land. This tract 
laid along the West Blue river, commencing about three 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 13 

miles east of Beaver creek in Seward county and extending 
west into York county. While this grant was small com- 
pared to the one to the railroad company, it detracted more 
form the homestead privileges, as far as it extended than the 
latter, as it was an unconditional grant, covering the said 
number of acres of some of the best land in Nebraska, taking 
in the timber along the river the entire length of the tract, 
and not one foot of it being reserved for homesteads. In 
the matter of the railway grant it was made on condition 
that the company construct a railroad through the grant, and 
every other section was reserved for homesteads. It is sup- 
posed that this deal was made to better the living conditions 
of the homesteaders by providing them with markets and 
transportation advantages, but the government did the deal- 
ing and then robbed the settlers of one-half of their home- 
stead right to pay for it, leaving them only 80 instead of 160 
acre homesteads. However this did not effect the privileges 
of soldiers of the war of the rebellion who were permitted to 
enter a homestead of 160 acres. And in this we see another 
half honest and half dishonest deal of the government with 
its private citizens. The right made to the soldiers to enter 
a homestead of 160 acres was no more than a blind to cover 
up the government's failure to do with them as it had agreed. 
We very well remember the flaming posters that were stuck 
up all over our city of Warren, Ohio, offering inducements to 
get men to enlist to go in defense of their country, and one of 
those inducements standing out in very large red letters which 
could be read at a distance said: "One-Hundred and Sixty 
Acres of Land will be Given by The United States Govern- 
ment, to every able bodied man, eighteen years of age or 
over, who will enlist in the military service of the United 
States for three years or during the war. " And we also re- 
member that one of those posters decorated the east wall of 
the room in which we placed our name upon the roll of 



14 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Uncle Sam's defenders and took the oath to serve three 
years or during the great war. Ot course the fault was in 
the promise. Had it been hulfilied there would have been 
but little land left for homesteads. And to give the soldiers 
an advantage in the homestead deal was unavoidable and 
about the only way out of keej^ing a rash promise. The 
nation s liberality was shown in the right given the soldiers 
to homestead 160 acres where the general homesteads were 
but 80 acres, and also in permiting a deduction of the time 
of the soldier's military service from the time required for 
him to reside upon his homstead, and yet it was short of 
being a fullfillment of a legitimate contract. 

After the close of the war a large number of soldiers be- 
came home-seekers in the west, many of whom took advan- 
tage of not oniy the homestead privilege granted them, but 
the fine land and promising future, and settled upon the 
prairies of Seward count}'. Some of those comrades are 
here yet, some have passed on to other fields while many 
are "tenting uj)on the eternal camp ground," beyond the 
last river where we must all join them in the near future. 

Straggling settlements were made in different localities of 
Seward county all through the sixties, but the grand rush of 
home-seekers came in 1S69 and 1870 during which period 
nearly every availa'o'e homestead was taken and settlement 
made upon it. The pioneer settlers were sanguine of their 
ability to make homes of comfort and value. Thev built 
sod houses, made dugouts, and occasionally a house of logs 
or lumber. And it was no uncommon sight in those days to 
see smoke coming up out of the earth where some enterpris- 
ing family had fixed up a home. But "vanity of vanities." 
The notion to improve their homesteads deserted many of 
them and as soon as they could do so they sold their claims 
and drifted to other quarters or returned to the "old folks" at 
the old and longed for home. In that period homesickness 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 15 

was the most prevalent and troublesome disease in Nebraska, 
and It laid its cold lingers upon some who could not resist it. 

The water of Seward county is hard. Even that of the 
streams and springs is hard, but is of an excellent grade. 
There are a number of springs of very fine water along the 
West Blue river. One of the largest of '.hese springs is an 
"old land-mark" almost in the center of the village of Beaver 
Crossing. It is located near where Daniel Millspaw's ranch 
buildmgs stood, and without doubt furnished many thirsty 
travelers, in the days of prairie schooner emigration, the first 
good water they had tasted after leaving the settlements. 

The first flowing well of the county to establish anv in- 
terest or faith in the existance of fiowing water in the vicinity 
where it exists, was discovered in Dewit Eager's store in 
Beaver Crossing by mere accident. That such a discovery 
should be made within the precincts of a village store may 
seem strange, but Mr. Eager had a well in his store for the 
accomodation of his customers and the water had become 
impure and bad, therefore he employed Ray Virgin of Utica 
to sand pump the well and sink it deeper to find better water 
if possible. The work progressed, but the quality of the 
water did not improve. The well kej^t getting deeper and 
deeper; finally the bottom seemed to drop out and the water 
rushed up wii h such force that the store cellar was half full 
of it before it was realized v.hat had happened. This dis- 
covery created quite an excitement as it was made in the dry 
season of 1895, and several parties were soon on the anxious 
seat to try their luck for a well. T.J.Foster was so anxious 
to see the water shooting up out of the earth at his place 
that he could not sleep nights, and went around dav-times 
dreamily talking about a fiowing well. In a few days he 
succeeded in securing the services of C. C. Evaus to make 
him a two inch fiowing well. The work on the well com- 
menced earl}' in the morning and flowing water was struck 



16 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

just a short time before night, and although the well was 
full}'' piped, flowing well construction was new business to 
Mr. Evans. The well was of the large size, the flow very 
strong and the necessary precautions to prevent an outside 
flow which came up around the outside of the piping, had 
not been taken and as a result a nice little river soon sprang 
into existance. Unfortunatly the river was not all water, be- 
ing about half quick sand which failed to run off, constantly 
settling in the passage way and daming the water which 
shortly formed a small sized lake in the midst of which was 
Tom's house. Tom had lost sleep over the matter of get- 
ting a well and as he shoveled sand that night to keep an 
opening for the water to run off and save his house from be- 
ing a Noah's Ark, he might have been heard praying for one 
glimpse of God's token, the rainbow, and that the destruc- 
tion of the earth by Are might commence while his part of it 
was too wet to burn. Tom Foster never swears and wheth- 
er his thoughts on this occasion were solemn or otherwise 
he certainly had a wonderful well, and one which drove 
away all doubts in regard to the existance of flowing water 
under the ground in the locality of Beaver Crossing. This 
well, when the stream was finally reduced to the size of an 
ordinary flowing well, threw water to a heigth of twent3'-five 
feet, but the numerous wells which were almost immediatly 
made in the vicinity, reduced the force of its flow to a con- 
siderable extent. However the water in most any of the 
numerous wells in existance toda\" on land on a level with it 
will rise from ten to flfteen feet above the top of the ground. 
The territory upon which these wells may be procured ex- 
tends over the entire width of the West Blue valley and for 
a distance up and down the valley of about fourteen miles. 
This seeming to be the extent of the under ground reser- 
voir of flowinii water. 




The above represents a flowing well on the farm formerly 
owned by Henry Cast, east of Beaver Crossing. There was 
a reduction made in the flow after which the stream of water, 
as it appears here, was forced twenty-seven feet above the 
j^jround where it is located. 




One of the first fio'ving wells of Beaver Crossing. It was 
located on the old picnic grounds, near the river, known as 
"Dimery's Park." The well was one of the attractions that 
drew many people from various parts of the county and state 
and was viewed by thousands as one of the wonders of Sew- 
ard County. And it was not a deception. Those wells here 
represented have proven, in the past, to be of inestimable 
worth to the localities where they exist, while there is a broad 
field for the future developement of their many possible ad- 
vantages to the county which are as yet untested and untried. 



CHAPTER V. 



The Soil of Seward County. Indigenous People, Wild Game, Fioh and 
Pests. All Disappear Before Approaching Civilization. 



The soil of Seward county is immensely rich and extends 
to such a depth as to appear inexhaustible. Dirt taken out 
from six to ten feet below the surface will produce any kind 
of vegetation that is climc.t3ab'.e; that upon the bottom lands 
running to a greater debth than the up-land soil. A pecul- 
arity is noted in the fact that the last shovelfulls of dirt 
thrown out from a cellar or dugout seven or eight feet deep 
in vegetable growing weather, will shortly produce more 
weeds than can find standing room — the seed from which 
these weeds spring having been drifted into the earth, pos- 
sibly a half century ago. 

If there is anything in the way of mineral in the earth 
of Seward county it has not yet been developed. However 
mineral water is said to exist in some of the springs at Mil- 
ford. In the days of earliest pioneer settlement an excite- 
ment was created by the circulation of a report by several 
citizens that an abundance of coal existed within easy reach 
of the people in the earth at or near Milford. And Josiah 
White, a near neighbor to the writer, declared in such em- 
phatic and positive language that he knew there was no mis- 
take about it and that the coal was there as stated, that we 
took his words, as we should a good and kind neighbor's for 
undefiled Gospel truth and did not miss an opportunity to 
tell others about the coal at Milford. But noticing the gen- 
eral incredulous smile that those to whom the matter was 
mentioned wore upon their faces, an investigating inquiry 



18 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

was made, resulting in the disclosing of the fact that one 
Mr. Her, a honnesteader at Pleasant Dale, on Middle creek, 
in the eastern part of the county, a spiritual medium and an 
evangelist of that creed had been holding meetings and had 
converted Mr. White and several others, and about the first 
information the s])irits of departed humanity conveyed to the 
faithful of Seward county was that there was coal to be had 
for merely the digging at the place named, and near the 
surface. In their eagerness to roll out a few car loads ot 
the greatelv needed fuel, they went to work- with showls. 
picks, muscle and "elbow grease," which was unsparingly 
applied for several weeks and until some spirit, perhaps told 
them that the informing spirits were viewing the locality 
of Milford, Nebraska, from China, on the other side of the 
earth, when they discovered coal "near the surface." Now, 
whether this is a true supposition or not, they abandoned 
the work, but clung to the faith. 

A few years farther along in the seventies the second 
fuel exitement sprang up in N precinct over the discovery of 
what was supposed to be peat, on the farm of Chris. Les- 
enb3^ And so positive was Mr. Lesenby that his peat- 
bog would boost a large city into existance that he squan- 
dered considerable of his wealth in laying out a city and 
building business houses that were never used. The state- 
ment of A. E. Sheldon in a letter to Cox's history that the 
name of this phantom city was "Pittsburg" and that 
he had mail delivered to him for his neighbors in the post 
office in that city, is undoutedly a hallucination of a boy's 
mind, as Mr. Lesenby named his city "Peatsburg, " and not 
"Pittsburg," and there was never any post office established 
there. And whether there was any peat there or not re- 
mains a matter of serious doubt. At least the city and the 
material from which it received its name have both passed 
into history as a delusion. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 19 

INDIANS, WILD GAME, FISH ETC. 

While there was a time when Indians were the lords and 
kings on the prairies of Seward county, there never was any 
record of Indian hostility to white settlers within its borders. 
Strolling bands of the red beggars frequently passed through 
the county on begging expeditions until as late as 1876, but 
the govern aient corralled them about that time and sent 
them to their reservations. In the early sixties Indians no 
doubt raised some hair of white women and children in the 
countv, but it was hair that raised through fright. And m 
those davs the redsUins were not only beggars, l)Ut were 
thieves also, and the daily passage of white travelers, in 
armed bands of several hundred along the old freight route 
through the county, undoubtedly prevented them perform- 
ing acts of murder. They do not like civilization and when 
they cannot drive it out of a country they will shrink from it 
and disappear if there is possibe room to do so. 

Wild game occupied a prominent place and was one of 
the great beneficient factors in the settlement of the whole 
"wild and wooly west. " And Seward county had its share 
until about 1882. Buffalo was quite plentiful in the early 
sixties, and elk, deer, antelope, jack rabbits and prairie 
chickens were numerous all through the seventies in some 
localities. 

The living streams of water in the county were stocked 
with fine native fish. Cat fish, bullheads, pike and sunfish 
or mountain bass. But hke the Indians and the game, civil- 
ization aided by the state government with its deposite of 
rapid increasing and worthless German carp, have about 
driven the natives out of the streams. And as compensa- 
tion for this act of folly the state taxes every male person 
over 21 years of age one dollar for a season's Hcense to sit 
on the bank of one of the streams and watch a cork dance 
over the rippHng waves. Of course catching fish is not 



20 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

considered in this game of "solitarie, " as a carp won't bite 
nor let a decent fish do so. 

In addition to the wild Indian, wild game and native fish 
the ground was alive with native pests which remained un- 
til civilization become well settled when they disappeared 
in similar manner to the Indians and game. Rattle-snakes 
were so fearfully numerous as to be more dangerous than 
Indians, but they left the county about 1890 and it is not to 
be regretted in the least. Fleas were indigenous pests and 
torments. It was no uncommon thing to see a man stop on 
the highway and turn up his pants leg and his sock leg down 
and pick a fiea. Our first homestead residence was a log 
mansion twelve feet square. It had one door and two win- 
dows, shingled with Nebraska shingles dug out of a clay- 
bank near by, and the floor and carpet were of the same 
kind of material. And when we got out of bed with our 
bare feet upon that dirt carpet the etiect upon our nerves 
made by those httle hoppers jumping upon them and wres- 
tling for the best places is indiscribable yet not forgotten. 
A flea's teeth are not more annoying many times than his 
back and a Httle bite will not make a fellow feel like swearing 
half so much as it does to have one crawl up on the inside 
of his clothing from the bottom to the top with his razor- 
back turned in while he is Hstening to a preacher telling 
what to do to be saved. But this was one of the conflicts 
of pioneer life in Nebraska, and while its reflections at this 
late date are unpleasant if not sad, the early passing away 
of the redskins, rattlers and fleas should fill the land with 

joy- 



CHAPTER VI. 

From What Did the Great American Desert Gain its Name? — Drouth, 
Dust or Sand Storms — Rain and Snow Storms — Wind Storms. 

. » 

The opinion formed by a few persons and accepted as 
correct by the general pubhc that the whole vast area of 
territory, extending from the west shore of the Missouri 
river to the foot-hills of the Rocky mountains, was a baren 
desert, without doubt resulted from a mere glance at the 
great plains during an unfavorable period. There must be 
many residents of Seward county who can remember the 
desolate appearing outlines of the "Great American Desert" 
which marred the face of the maps in the school geographies 
fifty or sixty years ago. And the laws of the land and the 
powers that were in those days would not have permitted an 
author of school maps to outline and describe Seward county 
nor any other portion of that desert as the most productive 
land in the world. Had a child in school advanced such an 
idea he or she would have been summarily punished with 
the small end of a beech limb and declared too lazy to learn 
the lessons taught in the books. And here in Seward countv 
today people are inclined by vast reasons to question the 
sanit\^ of those who everlooked facts and placed a myth or 
deception before school children in regard to the country 
they lived in. But in looking up facts they reveal something 
of a reason for such errors. In those wild times when the 
buffalo, elk, deer and antelope had full swa\^ roaming at 
will over the prairie, they tramped and eat the grass, during 
the drouth seasons, until the ground in large tracts was 
as bare as a lioor. Especially was this so on the up-lands 
bordering upon the Missouri river. xA.nd the land being of a 



22 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

sandy nature with no timber and nothing to be seen but the 
bare and parched earth as far as the eye could reach, there 
was Httle else to be thought of but a desert. Again the ab- 
sence of moisture to keep the dust down together with the 
prevalent winds of that period resulted in almost constant 
sand storms or dust blizzards. 

Alth'ough the tilling of the soil an J the planting of mill- 
ions of trees by the settlers aided in drawing moisture, break- 
ing the winds and keeping the land more settled, those des- 
ert appearing sand storms were of frequent occurrence up to 
as late a date as 1880. Dust blizzards were similar to snow 
blizzards excepting that they followed a drouth or dry spell 
while a snow blizzard follows a wet season. They were in 
early times both of three days duration and seldom cut their 
stay one minute short of regulation time. The clouds of 
dust which were formed frequently had so much appearance 
of rain clouds that a person not acqainted with them would 
expect to see the rain pouring down in torrents in a few 
minutes. These phenomenal disturbances were many times 
augmented by the addition of lightening and heavy thunder. 
There has been many such storms in Seward county and 
many days when the air was so impregnated with fine, white 
sand that it was difficult to get a breath of air that was clear 
from dirt. And this latter condition seemed to have come 
from other localities as the sand would fall like dew, unac- 
companied by high wind. 

In the spring of 1879, shortly after seeding time, the most 
disagreable and destructive dust blizzard ever witnessed by 
the earliest settlers, raged throughout Seward county for the 
usual period of three days and nights. It had been a very 
dry year. In fact there had been but little moisture for 
eight months, the earth bemg so baked and hard that there 
was but a small amount of fall plowing, as it was almost im- 
possible to keep a plow in the ground where it was baked 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 2'3 

and in fields where it was not baked the soil was so drv and 
liL!;ht that a plow as smooth as i;lass would only push the 
furrow over without turning it. It is said "there is no great 
loss without small gain," and in the fact that it had been too 
dry for weeds to grow, was its blessed reminde:. But with 
the earth in this condition the wind came and the billowy 
clouds rolled from the earth to the sky, and the frequent 
Hash of lightening and peal of thunder caused many hearts 
to beat with rapture over thoughts that it would rain; and 
it did rain, but not the kind that required the token of God's 
promise that the world should not be destroyed again by 
water. And it entered the houses regardless of the tightest 
walls. Wherever the air went the black dirt accompanied 
it, blanketing beds and tables and carpeting the floors. The 
soil was swei)t from plowed fields as with a broom to the 
depth of the plowing, and drifted into ridges in hedges and 
in the high dead grass at the sides of roads similar to snow 
drifts, man}' of the drifts of dirt being visible at the present 
tune. The misfortune caused by this storm consisted not 
onl)' in the seed grain which was swept entirely from the 
fields, but the labor of sowing together with the lost time, 
or backset to crops which were re-sowen, in all not easy to 
estimate. P'ortiinatelv there has been a gradual receding 
from those desert conditions until there has been only a few 
small reminders of them in the past thirty-four years. 

While Nebraska is a dry state it is frequentl}^ visited by 
unparaleled downpores of rain, turning the draws into rage- 
ing torrents and swelling the rivers until their valleys resem- 
ble lakes. While Seward county is like a duck's back and 
surplus water soon runs off", those precipitations of moisture 
are generally followed by continued drouths. Snow storms 
of any great magnitude have occurred only occasionally, and 
each one can readily be recalled to mind by most any of the 
earlier settlers. W. W. Cox, in his history, gives an ac- 



24 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

count of a disasterous snow storm in the winter of 1864-65, 
but it a})pears that the thawing oil of the snow accompanied 
by a forty-eight hour downpour oi rain was the greatest 
cause of misfortune to a few famihes who had settled u{)on 
the river bottom land. But the winter of 1866-67 seems to 
have been the crowning period for snow storms oi which Mr. 
Cox says: "Of all the hard winters we have experienced in 
forty-five years of residence in Nebraska, that was b\' far the 
most severe. It began to snow on the first day of Decem- 
ber, and from that time to the hrst of Af^ril it was a succes- 
sion of storm after storm, and many of them was regular 
blizzards of the most ferocious character. The snow be- 
came very deep and was drifted into such huge drifts that 
communication was entirely cut oli between distant settle- 
ments." It IS evident that the little settlements at that time 
were sorely distressed for the want of food and fuel, and al- 
so for feed for stock, being almost reduced to a point of 
starvation. Their scanty supplies had run out almost be- 
fore there was an opening through the great banks of snow 
by which they might replenish their stocks, and then the 
floods following the sudden melting of the snow cut them off 
froin relief for several days. This was, of course, a condi- 
tion incident to earliest pioneer life in Seward count\\ 

The spring of 1873 was ver}' pleasant and people had 
made gardens and prospects were so fine for early summer 
that the ordmary straw stables for stock had been neglected 
and permitted to become open, the sides having been blown 
away b}' the wind, and in fact all precaution and care for 
the protection of man and beast from the cold blasts of a 
winter storm had been forgotten. It commenced raining on 
the tenth of April, the wind blowing gently from the south- 
east, the rain and wind continuing until the night of the 
twelveth, the clouds thickening at times would be accom- 
panied by lightening and thunder. We were living in our 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, XZCr./.SKA. 25 

twelve foot, pioneer residence with two windows, (hi that 
memorable night of the twelfth of April we were awakened 
by an unusual roaring of the wind and glancing at the win- 
dows thought the moon was shining, but soon recalled the 
fact that there was no moon. We got up and o}^ened the 
door and were a' most instantly made aware of the source 
from which the disturbance and the light in the wmdows 
came. The wind had veered to the north-west and seemed 
to have the force of a cyclone while the air was so full of 
snow as to produce an appearance of moonlight. In fact 
the most terrifying blizzard we had ever witnessed was be- 
fore our drowsy eyes in all the horrors that could be depict- 
ed. We did not tarry long to view the panarama as the 
ruling elements seemed to dictate that we retire and shut the 
door. This blizzard continued for three days and nights 
without abatement for an instant and the doleful tones that 
were ever present in the ears were not relieved when in the 
refreshing embrace of slumber. And there was scarcely a 
minute during the seventy-two hours that an object of any 
dimension could be discerned ten steps distant, and two 
minutes exposure to the full force of the storm would cause 
vacant places in a person's clothing to fill up with the cele- 
brated but not appreciated "beautiful snow." While several 
of our neighbors saved their cows, horses and mules b\^ tak- 
ing them into their houses we saved three out of four small 
hogs and about thirty hens by dividing our twelve foot space 
with them. We did not bring these animals in until the 
second day and one of the hogs died in fifteen minutes after 
being brought where it was warm. Charles Emerson, liv- 
ing in a sod house on a hill in L precinct, had his horses in 
a dugout stable at the foot of the hill, perhaps six or eight 
rods from the house, and the storm was so severe and blind- 
ing that he did not venture to go and attend to them dur- 
ing the three days, and after the storm had passed by his 



26 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

heart almost failed him when he opened the half closed door 
of the stable and found it packed full of snow and not the 
least sign that his faithful horses were alive. He secured a 
shovel and after digging a while came upon the horses both 
standing up, the snow having filled in around them so close 
that they could not lie down, the warmth from their bodies 
melting the snow sufficiently to give them breathing room, 
and both were alive. This storm raged during the 13th. 
14th, and 15th of April, the latter being Easter Sunday, 
and would justly pass to history as the greatest Easter 
storm on record. 

The winter of 1879 and 80 was a record breaker for 
snow, and the first and only winter when runners superseded 
wheels on all conveyances in Seward county. That winter 
sledding came to stay and during three months it was al- 
most out of style, and impossible to run wheel vechicles. 
The foundation of this continued sledding came about the 
middle of Decmber in the way of several inches of snow up- 
on which there was a heavy fall of sleet, forming an unus- 
ually still crust, and upon this crust there came a heavy fall 
of snow. This stormy condition lasted about ten days, and 
although there was a little too much of it for the many that 
had corn to gather, no one thought much about it, as snow 
never remained on the ground long in Nebraska. But there 
came an unlooked for change on the night of December 23d 
the wind raising to a force of about sixty miles an hour, 
swept the loose snow on top o: the crust into drifts ten and 
hfteen feet deep at the south and e.ist sides of buildings, hedg- 
es and in draws and low places in roads; corn fields were 
full almost to the top of the stalks, and these great banks 
were pounded and packed so hard by the force of the wind 
that horses and cattle could travel over them and not break 
the crust. And while the drifts would bear the hoofs of 
those animals thev would not bear the wheels of wagons. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 27 

While these conditions cut the farming communitv (-if 
for a time from their source of supphes and mail, there was 
but little if any suHermg for want of real necessities. Our 
house was short on bread stuff, but we had a good coffee'mill 
and an abundance of wheat and corn and got along fine. 
The greatest suffering in our neighborhood was due to the 
fact that nearh' every man used tobacco and all had been 
stretching their plugs to make them reach to the end of corn 
picking time and were (mt when the roads became blockaded. 
And if there ever is a time when a man who uses tobacco 
can't get along without the stuff it is when he is snowed in. 

On the 1 2th of January, 1888 occurred the fatal bliz- 
zard that caused so much suffering among children having 
caught them at the hour of going home from school. The 
wind was mi!d from the south-east all forenoon, and until 
ubout three o'clock in the afternoon. The snow fell very 
fast all day, being in large flakes and light. Between three 
and four o'clock the avalanche of snow driven by a terriffic 
wind from the north-west, poured in upon every exposed 
quarter with blinding fury. The snow came so thick as to 
be impenetrable to vision, and many children became blind- 
ed, bewildered and lost, wandering for hours in the extreme 
cold. However the storm abated about sun down and the 
sky became clear. Had it continued the usual time of three 
days the prairies of Seward county might have been strewn 
with the dead bodies of children and the story too horrible 
to tell. As it was a few lost their lives throughtout the state 
resulting from exposure to the cold, and a few having their 
limbs frozen were rendered cripples. 

And this sums up the severe snow epochs covering a peri- 
od of fifty years in Seward county, and the severity of those 
storms was due as much to the unprepared conditions cf the 
country as to the storms. The great Easter blizzard of 1873 
was disagreable in the extrem.e, but had the settlers been 



28 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

prepared with comfortable quarters for their stock it would 
have carried a much less formidable aspect. The first, sec- 
ond and tlnrd storms mentioned would seem like small affairs 
in New York, Pennsylvania or Ohio. The last one men- 
tioned as "the fatal blizzard" of 1888, was severe, but of 
short duration and had it occurred at an earlier hour in the 
day, or when school children were safe at home, it would 
have soon been forgotten. And we venture the assertion 
that there is scarcely a section of country in any of the snow 
zones of the world the size of Seward county that can com- 
pare with it for mildness in the matter of snow storms during 
the liftv-two years mentioned. We are not saying that it 
does not snow every winter in Nebraska, but storms of any 
great magnitude and worthy of note have occurred on an 
average of about one m ten years. Snow seldom amounts 
to even fair sleighing in Nebraska, and has been known to 
remain as such over three days at a time only once in sixty 
years. In the winter of 1879 and 1880 there was sleighing 
from Christmas till the middle of March and the many sleds 
and runners to take the place of wheels on wagons and bug- 
gies that were made during that time have become rusty, 
rotten and covered with moss from lack of usage. 

That Seward county is located in a windy state cannot 
be gainsaid, and until recent years, wind blowing at a rate 
of forty to fifty miles an hour was only a gentle breeze, and 
some times it came with force enough to shake the foun- 
dation of a sod house. But there has perhaps been as little 
damage and inconvenience from that source in the county 
as many other sections of the world. And its disasterous 
wind storms cannot be attributed to the prevailing tendency 
of the element. They would undoubtedly have occurred in 
the balmy precincts of Switzerland had the storm conditions 
been the same in that realm. However the storms are limit- 
ed to such small numbers that had it not been for the fatal 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 29 

tornado of May 14th, 1913, there would be but little of oc- 
currence in that line \vorth\^ of mention since the earlicbt 
settlements. In June, 1875, a wind storm of violent force 
swept the entire county, coming from the north-west, doing 
considerable damage to buildings although there was no 
loss of life. This was a straight 'vind and might i)roperly 
be called a cyclone. Living on the prairie where the ap- 
proaching storm in all of its horrible features could be viewed 
for many miles, while its appearance was fearful to look up- 
on, it was as grand a picture of the living but distructive ele- 
ment as could be produced. A great, black cloud seemed 
to be rolling along upon the ground while it reached up to 
the sky. The fastenings upon our door were not very 
strong therefore we took the precaution to hold it shut which 
l^roved to be a task requiring our entire strength. The main 
force of the wind lasted but a few minutes, during which 
time the room was filled so full of black dirt that we could 
not see any one of the family nor even the windows in the 
walls. A similar storm occurred in September, 1876, com- 
ing in the middle of the night with a violent thunder storm. 
Hay stacks, grain stacks, wind mills and small out buildings 
were blown down, wracked or damaged in numerous sec- 
tions of the county. Extending over a period from this date 
to May 14th, 1913, there were but a few minor disturbances 
by unusual winds. The tornado of the date just mentioned 
placed a dark blot upon the pages of the count^^'s histor3\ 
alwa3's to be read with deep sorrow and sadness. The 
storm came from the south-west, entering the county three 
or four miles north of its south-west corner and passing 
north-east through the entire count3^ destroying farm resi- 
dences, barns and ever^^thing in its path. It struck the 
west portion of the city of Seward, passing through it, leav- 
ing death and desolation in its wake, the dead numbering 
eight residents of the little cit}', as follows: Mrs. Edward 



30 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Edmonds, aged 63 years; Mrs. Wm. Hassinger, aged 73 
years; Gustav Schulz, 32 years, and daughter Elma, 3 years 
and 10 months; Samuel Crim, 43 years; iMrs. David Imlay, 
63 years; Mrs. C. L. Wasserman, 34 years; and Mrs. 
David Hoover, 58 years. This sad occurrence fell heavily 
upon the sympathetic spirit of the city of Seward, its citizens 
being almost prostrated with grief for many days, in which 
the entire county joined their sympathies. There were no 
fatalities out side the city of Seward, due to the course of 
the storm which passed through the fields on an angle thus 
avoiding contact to a great extent with dwelling houses. 
Again people residing in the country districts had an oppor- 
tunity to see the approaching storm and secure a place of 
safty. 

The property loss in the count}^ from this storm is believ- 
ed to be conservatively estimated at $100,000. 

The relief fund raised for the benefit of the Seward suf- 
ferers amounted to 19,451.35. All but 11,473.30 of this 
fund was contributed by Seward county citizens, outside 
contributions not being solicited, but accepted when sent. 
The relief committee appointed to disburse the relief fund 
consisted of Hon. Wm. H. Smith, Wm. Rosborough and 
W. Q. Dickinson. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The First Settlement a Result of the Civil War. The Ranchers — John E. 
Fouse, Daniel Millspaw, William J. Thompson and Roland Reed. 

Beaver Crossings first Settler. 

Earl}^ in the summer of 1862, John Leonard passed over 
the freight route from Nebraska City with a wagon loaded 
with freight and drawn by two 3'oke of oxen, bound for 
the distant west. After leaving the freight at its destined 
place John made his way back over the plains, reaching 
Beaver Creek in the evening he camped for the night. It 
will be remembered that at this time the great civil war was 
the main topic of the day, excitement and fear running high 
and causing a greater extent of anxiety than at an}^ later 
period during that terrible conflict. This matter being well 
embedded in young Leonard's mind it needed but little re- 
freshing, and shortly after going into camp, parties from the 
east arrived to share his lodging place. During the course 
of conversation they told Mr. Leonard that the United States 
government was drafting men back in the states for the 
arm3\ John's sleep was some-what disturbed and in his 
wakeful hours that night he thought the matter over and 
came to the conculsion that the place where he was then 
spending the night was good enough for him, and he would 
stay there, and there he remained, his nearest neighbor be- 
ing the West families, twelve miles east on the West Blue 
river. Some time after his settlement his cattle strayed 
away and in his search for them he became lost and after 
wandering for several hours he fortunately came upon some 
settlers on Lincoln creek north-west of the present location 
of the city of Seward where he received refreshments and 



32 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

the proper directions for returning home where he arrived 
in due time, finJinu; that his cattle were there waiting for 
him. In this trip he made a discovery of the secoud bound- 
arv of his vast neighborhood, the extension being from twelve 
miles east to eighteen north-east and not a livmg soul be- 
tvveen them excepting himself. The matter of a 3'oung man 
preferring a life a})art from civilized humanity, among wild 
Indians, ravenous wild beasts and reptiles, to shouldering a 
musket and keeping step with comrades in defense of his 
country, illustrates the awful war signs of that time and the 
fearful view people took of them. But John Leonard made 
the best of his situation and by industry and enterprise in 
deals with the freighters and early settlers he accumulated 
quite a foriune. He built a ranch which he afterwards sold 
to Amos Reed, and which was occupied by the latter's 
brother, Roland Reed. Mr. Leonard informed us that he 
put up about one hundred tons of prairie hay the second 
year after he settled on Beaver creek, selling it at large 
prices to people traveling across the plains who bought it in 
small quantities, paying as high as one dollar for one feed. 
John E. Fouse was the next settler at Beaver Crossing, 
coming in the fall of 1863, or a little more than one year 
later than Leonard's settlement. He built a ranch, or more 
properly, a wild west tavern. It was made of logs, the 
doors being double — one swinging in while a heavy plank 
door swung out. The windows were protected also by 
heavy plank door shutters, all arranged to be instantly clos- 
ed. It was covered with the ordinary covering, poles, hay 
and dirt. From three to five heavy timbers were usually 
placed lengthwise of the building, one in the center and the 
others at equal distances between the center or ridge pole 
and the side wall of the building. Upon these timbers small 
poles would be placed close together and on the poles a 
thick covering of hay or straw would be made and all cover- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 33 

ed with from one foot to two feet of clay. And it might as 
well be said right here that this kind of roofs made thie set- 
tlement of the west possible. Had the settlers becci obliged 
'..o procure shingles to cover their temporary dwellings of 
sod the settlement of the |)rairies would have been many 
years behind the times. The covering was not handson^e 
and sometimes a pioneer would crack a tooth on one of the 
shingles that had accidcntly slij)ped through the hav and 
dropped into his johnney-cake, but it was the best in the 
market and made a warm roof. Its greatest fault was oc- 
casionally manifest when there was a continued rain for a 
few days when it would commence to leak and continue sev- 
eral da\\s after it had (juit raining. And Fouse's ranch was 
covered with an extra heavy roof of this kind. The struct- 
ure was located on the soth-west side of Beaver creek, about 
six or eight rods from the bank which was quite high at that 
point. There was a cellar made under it, and from the cel- 
lar a secret underground passageway was dug leading to the 
creek, permitting the inmates to escape from the building 
unnoticed. These precautions were undoubtedly taken as 
means of safet}' from Indians, whatever they may have been 
afterwards used for. 

Shortly after Fouse's settlement Daniel Millspaw arrived 
and errected a ranch four and a half miles south east of Mr. 
Fouse's and about three miles south-east of the Leonard 
ranch, the former being on ground now occupied by the 
western portion of the city of Beaver Crossing. 

Mr. Millspaw was soon followed by Wm. J. Thompson 
a former settler of Otoe count}^ who raised his tent in the 
wa\' of a half dugout and half logs at the Walnut creek cross- 
ing, four miles east of the Millspaw ranch, at the junction 
of the steam wagon road and the freight route. 

Roland Reed, the last one of the ranchers to arrive on 
the scene, did not leave the old native state of New York 



34 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

until after the close of the civil war, in the spring of 1866, 
when he took possession of the ranch built by John Leonard 
which he conducted until the end of that kind of ranch busi- 
ness. 

The ranch mentioned by Cox in his history as that of 
Dan Millspaw, located in York county and conducted by 
that gentleman in 1862 while he was conducting one in Sew- 
ard county was, without doubt a ranch belonging to and 
managed by Jack McClellan, a son-in-law of Millspaw's. 
Mr. Cox mentions an incident which occurred in this dug- 
out ranch while Dan Millspaw was cooking his supper when 
a dare devil jumped down the chimney into the fire-place 
scaring Millspaw. It is a very nice story, but any one well 
acquainted with Uncle Dan, as Mr. Cox calls him, would 
brand it as an untruth because Uncle Dan would starve be- 
fore he would cook or do any other kind of work. And be- 
sides all of this he had an excellent wife who was an excell- 
ent cook. But the whole story is absurd as Millspaw never 
lived in York county and his ranch was a double log house 
in Seward county. 

While we have mentioned the ranchers as early settlers 
they were not such in the full sense of the term. They did 
not locate particularly to take land and make homes in the 
new country, but more to speculate in trade with the traveling 
public. Their mission was to feed the hungry and lodge 
the weary, and in return expected and received enormous 
prices and profits. Had it not been for this consideration, 
with the exception of John Leonard and Roland Reed, none of 
them would have been known as "first or early settlers." 
John Leonard's object in settling, as was told by himself to 
the writer, has been mentioned, and could not be considered 
as a sufficient reason to hold him as a perminent settler. 
His attention was entirely turned to speculation in deals with 
emigrants and freighters and it was not until late in the six- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 35 

ties that he pretended to make a home upon Uncle Sam's 
domain. The gift of one hundred and sixty acres of as line 
valle}' land as there was in Nebraska, with abundance of 
timber, made to him by his brother Amos, together with the 
homestead privelege was sufficient to induce Roland Reed 
to settle in Seward county regardless of the consideration 
named, yet he took advantage of ihe ranch opportunity as 
the only one open at that time to make a living for himself 
and family, which was natural and almost unavoidable. J. 
K. Fouse, Dan. Milispaw and VV. J. Thompson were Seward 
county settlers for no other purpose than ranch keeping and 
paid but little if any attention to home selections or home 
building. They ail prospered in their chosen line until the 
last spike was driven that joined the Atlantic and Pacific 
by iron rails, cutting off the freight traffic by wagon and the 
overland travel along the historical routes, thus robbing the 
ranchers of their patronage. The result of this was that 
they all turned their enterprising attention to securing homes 
and bennefiting by the grand opportunities which were 
then within their reach and all came to the front as model 
pioneer farmers. All of these land marks except John Leon- 
ard have long since passed to their final rest. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Agriculture in Pioneer Days. Hazardous Experiments Improve Produc- 
tions of Grain and Vegetables. Disadvantageous Early Markets. 

The matter of agriculture and the markets in pioneer 
days in Seward county could scarcely be depicted more ac- 
curately than is illustrated in R. G. Ingersoll's portray of 
when he was a farmer. Mr. Ingersoll was not a Seward 
county homesteader and knew nothing of the trials of pioneer 
farm life in Nebraska, but his story is a true representation 
of the way things were done in those days of long ago. 
Here it is— old homesteader— read it and see if there is an}^- 
thing left out: 

"When I was a farmer they used to haul wheat two hun- 
dred miles in a wagon and sell it for thirty-five cents a bush- 
el. They would bring home about three hundred feet of 
lumber, two bunches of shingles, a barrel of salt, and a cook 
stove that never would draw and never did bake. 

"In those blessed days the people lived on corn and ba- 
con. Cooking was an unknown art. Eating was a neces- 
sity, not a pleasure. It was hard work for the cook to keep 
on good terms even with hunger. 

"The rain held the roofs in percfet contempt, and the 
snow drifted joyfully on the floors and beds. They had no 
barns. The horses were kept in rail pens surrounded with 
straw. Long before spring the sides would be eaten away 
and nothing but roofs would be left. P^ood is fuel. When 
the cattle were exposed to all the blasts of winter, it took all 
the corn and oats that could be stuffed into them to prevent 
actual starvation. 

"Women were supposed to know the art of making fires 
without fuel. The wood-pile consisted, as a general thing, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 37 

of one log, upon which an axe or two had been worn out in 
vain. There was nothing to kindle a fire with. Pickets 
were pulled from the garden fence, clapvboards taken from 
the house, and every stray plank was seized upon for kind- 
ling. Ever^^thing was done in the hardest way. Ever}'^- 
thing about the farm was disagreable. Nothing was kept 
in order. Nothing was preserved. The wagons stood in 
the sun and rain, and the {)lows rusted in the fields. There 
was no leisure, no feeling that the work was done. It was 
all labor and weariness and vexation of spirit. The crops 
were destroyed b}^ wandering herds, or they were put in too 
late, or too early, or they were blown down, or caught by 
the frost, or devoured by the bugs, or stung by flies, or eat- 
en by worms, or carried away b}^ birds, or dug up by goph- 
ers, or washed away by floods, or dried up by the sun, or 
rotted in the stack, or heated in the crib, or they all run to 
vines, or tops, or straw, or cobs. And when in spite of all 
these accidents that lie in wait between the plow and the 
reaper, they did succeed in raiseng a good crop and a high 
price was ofiered, then the roads would be impassable. And 
when the roads got good, then the prices went down. Ev- 
erything worked together for evil." 

This is only one side of an exagerated picture of facts. 
While it is true that plows, wagons, reapers and other farm 
empliments stood out in all kinds of weather the year round 
throughuot Seward county it is also true that they were in- 
dispensible ar.icles for which it was impossible to provide 
covering. Fuel supply was a besetting and difificult problem 
that required years to solve. However Seward county was 
fortunate in the line of timber along its many miles of streams 
well distributed in different localities. But the story about 
living on "corn and bacon" is carrying that point altogether 
too far for Seward county pioneers. To tell the unadulter- 
ated truth we leave out the bacon. Had the old settlers been 



38 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

fortunate enough to have an addition of bacon to our bill of 
fare we would have been in fear of gout from too high Hvnig, 
and eating might have been such a pleasure that other mat- 
ters would have been lost sight of. Soup made of water, 
salt, potatoes and a few wild onions for seasoning was a 
luxury we remember yet, while johnney-cake with gravy 
made of salt, water and corn meal made up the everyday 
bill of fare. In those days the most interestmg and comfort- 
ing book, next to the Bible, to read was the history of the 
travels of Sir John Franklin and his comrades in search for 
the north pole. The story m this book was especially inter- 
esting where it gave the account of those men feasting upon 
soup made from strips cut from the soles of their rawhide 
shoes, an every day diet, changed to a feast by the addition 
of an extra strip of shoe. After reading this our "grub" 
tasted delicious. ' And in those times we didn't have dyspep- 
sia because we eat only when necessary and didn't eat too 
much. 

But no person could charge this condition to the country. 
The real fault was discernable in the fact that so many peo- 
ple with little or no means were trying to make a start upon 
raw land. It should be remembered that humanity creeps 
before it walks. And memory carries us back to the great, 
delicious squashes, pumpkins, mellons, and wild onions the 
countrv produced to add to the scanty eatables, the finest 
of their kind ever known. 

It is natural for man to want to follow the methods, not 
only in farming, but in every other occupation that he learned 
in youth. If he was raised in a country where it never quits 
freezing till after the fourth of July he will hang to his over- 
coat till after that date on the sunny coast of Florida. Many 
of the first settlers in Seward county were New England 
people. Those who were not from the far east were gener- 
ally emigrants from more northern states of the wesl. And 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 39 

they all had their si)ecial \va\' to raise farm products. They 
would not plant corn until the twentieth of May, and some 
of them would wait till the "old of the moon in Mav" to 
plant potatoes. These rules strictly adhered to in Seward 
county, Nebraska, resulted unfavorable for the cro[)s, es- 
pecially in dry years as the planting was done too late to 
get the benefit of the usual early rainy period. The corn 
was planted with hoes, and it was only an ordinary sight to 
see five or six persons covering corn with hoes while three 
or four were engaged in dropping it. Corn planted in this 
way usually made a light crop, but it was the way "father 
raised good corn." And it required the running of a risk to 
learn that corn planted with a planter made a better crop 
than corn planted in the old way, with a hoe, the same as it 
required an experiment, or an accidental disregard of old 
doctor theory to teach that a patient, sick with a fever would 
not die, but rather be bennefitted by drinking cold water. 
Occasionally a i)atient who the doctor said would die if he 
drank any cold water, would become reckless and thinking- 
he was going to die anyway, would drink a gallon or two of 
water and surprise the doctor by getting well. And a few 
fellows got reckless and thinking they would not raise much 
corn anyway, took the easiest way to plant it, with hand 
planters, and the corn grew so even and yielded so much 
better that the hand planters became popular for a few sea- 
sons when they were superseded by horse planters, and as 
some one had become reckless and planted his corn a little 
earlier in the season than the schedule time, the opinion 
formed during the hoe planting after the twentieth of May 
period, that Nebraska was not a corn country, was reversed 
Hnd farmers began to look upon it as the greatest corn coun- 
try of all corn countries. Corn proved to be king, and al- 
though it failed occasionally on account of grasshoppers and 
drouth, it has been and is today the grain that has made 



40 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Seward county land the "jewel" of the world. 

After a period of sixteen years of almost entire failure to 
raise spring wheat, the only wheat said to be productive in 
Nebraska, some reckless fellow, thinking no doubt, that he 
couldn't raise wheat anyway, "took chances" on the fall 
variety, and so deeply embeded had the delusion become 
that fall --vheat could not be produced in the country that this 
benefactor shut his eyes to keep out the vision of failure his 
folly had projected. But the grain continued on its mission 
to reverse the former hobby and show that while spring 
wheat could not be successfully raised fall wheat was the 
stuff to promote the wealth of Seward county. 

During the period when efforts to raise spring wheat 
brought nothing but heart rending dissapointment to the 
hard laboring and ever economizing, destitute farmers, other 
products of grain were tried as substitutes. Barley and iiax 
came to the front for a short time, the latter being resorted 
to by many farmers that become destitute through the fail- 
ure of their spring wheat, of seed to sow, the Iiax dealers 
furnishing the seed "on time" under contract that the said 
dealers should have the crop at so much per bushel. But 
barley and flax soon disappeared from the list as main crops 
being found diiffcult to handle on account of the usual wet 
harvest time and the lack of barns and sheds to cover such 
productions. 

Vegetables were bountious products to raise in Seward 
county. Potatoes yielded enormously, but a market for 
more potatoes than the producer's own use was entirely out 
of sight. And along about 1874 the Colorado beetle or hard 
shell potatoe bug made its advent into the potatoe patches, 
and as there was no remedy known at that time for the 
destructive pests, farmers labored under grave difficulties to 
save enough potatoes to supply their own tables with this 
kind of food staple. But after a few years of suffering some 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 41 

reckless fellow made another beneficent discovery b}' spray- 
ing his potatoe plants with a solution of the deadly poison, 
paris green and water, 

Seward county early settlers did not draw wheat two 
hundred miles to market, but their first market for grain was 
at Lincoln, thirty-five miles away from many of them, and 
the lumber to build Ross Nichols' house, standing yet in the 
east part of the village of Beaver Crossing, was drawn by 
team from Nebraska City, a distance of ninety miles. And 
that lumber was freighted by steam boat up the Missouri 
river from Kansas City. With the approach of the C. B. & 
Q. Railway into Seward county, in March 1873, a market 
for that year's crop was assured at Seward. And this prov- 
ed to be the principal market for Seward county, and for a 
considerable portion of York county. Although the market 
had come nearer home, all the inconveniences immaginable 
for handling the thousands of loads of grain that were drawn 
to the Seward market that and the following season, were 
prominent and disheartening features for the early grain pro- 
ducers of Seward county to bear and remember. There 
were no elevators nor dumps of any kind for several months, 
grain having to be unloaded by hand from the farmers' wag- 
ons either to small warehouses or to the cars for shipment. 
There were only three or four buyers with limited capacities 
for storeing grain, many times being unable for various rea- 
sons to secure cars the market would become closeed and 
prices cut in two nearly in the middle. We have seen five 
thousand bushels of shelled corn piled up on the ground and 
the snow drifting onto it and around it in the Seward market 
for the want of store room. Many times buyers would all 
excepting one declare their room for grain all filled up and 
refuse to buy when the one would cut the price all the farm- 
ers would bear and take all the grain that appeared upon the 
market. We have drawn loads of wheat eighteen miles to 



42 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

market on such days, and after being forced to take a cut 
price for it were obliged to take our place at the end of a 
long string of wagons and wait from the middle of the fore- 
noon until nearh' sun down, our poor, tired horses going 
without food or water, for our turn to unload. Of course 
grain buyers were not tricky and didn'l want to make any 
more money when buying wheat than the farmers made 
when raising it. But it did seem a little strange to us that 
one bu\'er with no more room than his competitors should 
have store room to unload forty or fifty loads of wheat after 
the said competitors had their houses all full. But time 
solves many mystries. In 1875 the honest grain buyers in 
all the small town markets, wishing to be on the safe side, 
introduced a S3^stem of testing and grading wheat. This 
was all right, but there was another mystry to it in the fact 
that with the rich, grain producing soil of Seward county 
farmers could not raise number one wheat. It all graded 
number two, three or "rejected." We recollect taking a 
load of wheat to the Seward market in the fall of 1875, when 
the elevators, warehouses and grain market were just east of 
the prisent location of the B. & M. depot. We crossed the 
bridge almost into the grain market and were met by two 
young gentlemen who offered us twenty-five cents a bushel 
for our wheat, saying: "That is all it is worth today." We 
thought it might be as well to take it up to the city and see 
what people there thought of it. We drove up and halted 
in front of Beaty & Davis' store and Mr. Beaty came out, 
looked at the grain and said: "That wheat is worth fifty 
cents a bushel today." We told him he could have it and 
he directed us to his grain house where the same gentlemen 
who made the first bid for it unloaded it. They wished to 
buy it for rejected wheat, the lowest grade; Mr. Beaty did 
buy it and pay for No. 3 wheat when it really should have 
brought the price of No. 2. But if there was an honest grain 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 43 

dealer in the country J. N. Beaty was his name. In those 
days farmers went a long distance to market with their grain 
and before leaving home had, as a rule, planned with the 
other half of the family upon what necessaries must be pur- 
chased with the receipts from the sale of the produce, and 
felt obliged to accej^t just what they could get for it in order 
to avoid rehauling it back home and to be able to take home 
the articles needed there. This established a system of con- 
tinual forced sale of farm produce. It is a well remembered 
fact by many early settlers, some of whom tell the story in 
an almost lamentable tone, that at some future date, corn 
"sold for ten cents a bushel." This is a reflection, not of 
any market time, but of a time of no market, and represents 
"forced sales." Producers needed other things so much 
more than they did corn that they were forced to accept the 
]irice they cou d L-et at that time. While this was not a 
market price, being merely an occasional individual deal, it 
is only a fair representation of low prices on farm ^ porducts 
as a result of pioneer needs. And corn in those days at ten 
cents a bushel brought as fair a price as good wheat which 
we sold shortly afterwards in the market for twenty-five cents 
a bushel. And taking into consideration the difierence in 
the tax rate on land at that time, being on a greater portion 
not any, and the tax rate at the present time, together with 
the low price of living at that time as compared with the 
high prices now; and again taking into consideration the dif- 
erence in the cost of production of corn during the different 
periods, ten cents at that period was as good a price as some 
of the more recent prices. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Breaking Prairie — Sod Houses, Dug:-Outs — How to Build Them. 

♦ 

One of the important matters for consideration after a 
homesteader had located a home on the prairie was to break 
a few acres of sod and prepare to raise something; to "keep 
the wolf from the door" when he got a door, and frequently 
the breaking plow was started before there was anything 
like a dwelling place provided — the family living in a tent or 
prairie schooner while the breaking season lasted---generally 
during the months of May and June. And in those days 
evervbods^ wanted breaking done, thousands of acres of 
prairie being turned over in Seward county and made into 
crop producing land almost simultaneously with the rush of 
emigration to the county the first two years of the seventies. 
But prairie breaking was no child's play. While it is called 
and supposed to be plowing it is vastly different from any 
and all other kinds of plowing. The earth under prairie sod 
is solid and hard. The grass roots run deep and are so 
compact as to form almost a solid mass of very tough, woody 
fiber, requiring a sharp plow and one that runs under and 
cuts the whole mass together. The breaking plow must be 
skillfully adjusted or it will not run and do the work required 
of it any more than a clock or watch will run without proper 
adjusment. And the next reqirements after the plow is in 
proj^er shape are hrst a good, strong team to draw it, and 
then a file to keep the plow sharp, a hammer and an iron 
wedge, old axe or other solid utensil to keep the "lav' or 
shear bent in proper shape. After these requirements have 
been supplied the work may progress under difhcultes. 

During the few years of the breaking period in Seward 
count}' there were many different kinds of schemes brought 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 45 

forvvad to facilitate the work and lighten its burdens. Many 
new inventions were put upon trial and had the breaking 
continued and with it the spirit of invention until the present 
time the sod might be rolling over by the force of electrictv, 
and with an Edison attachment reproducing the music of 
Gilmore's band. But it was all cut short for the want of 
sod, and at the present time it would be difficult to find 
enough good prairie sod in Seward county to build an or- 
dinary sod house. 

In the first place the old fashioned steel moldboard was 
used, but many plowmen thought that the suction of the sod 
upon the long, solid steel surface caused the plow to run 
very heavy and the rod moldboard was brought into exten- 
sive use. Then a plow with a moldboard made of small 
rollers which were expected to roll under the sod and turn it 
over was introduced. But this plow was not a success as 
it was soon discovered that the fine sand worked into the 
roller bearings and cut them off. Still another invention for 
easier work was the box plow. It was made in the shape of 
a box without a cover. The bottom of the box was the 
shear and run under the sod upon a level and cut the roots 
while the sides were the cutters to part the sod up and down. 
This box was made of sheet steel, a rod moldboard following 
the box turned the sod. These plows were used by manv 
people who pronounced them very good. And in their de- 
sign the greatest burden in prairie breaking, the penetrating 
of the solid rock like earth and cutting the mass of tough 
roots in the most practicial manner was aimed at more di- 
rectly than in any new moldboard invention. 

The motive power in front of the breaking plows in the 
breaking period was the main object for consideration, but 
with all of the difificult and heavy tug for it the work went on 
steadily until it was finished. A majority of the settlers did 
their breaking with but two horses while others used three or 



46 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

four. And occasionally a team of three or four yoke of cat- 
tle would be seen drawing a large breaker, the furrow being 
so wide it would appear like wide top tables turning over. 
Those large ox breakers were so constructed as not to re- 
quire guiding, the guiding of the cattle and keeping the plow 
sharp and in order being the principle part of the nnanual 
labor attached to the business. 

SOD HOUSES AND DUG-OUTS. 
While the prairie section, covering more than one-half of 
this continent, was handicapped in its early settlement by 
the lack of timber for fuel and building log houses with clap- 
board roofs and puncheon floors the diiiiculy was largely 
overcome by the use of sod instead of logs to make pioneer 
dwelling houses, covering them with dirt roofs and usmg the 
bare ground for floors. And the prairie land being generally 
of a dry nature, where there was a convenient hill, very 
comfortable dwelling places were made by digging what was 
called dugouts. It did not require much of a mechanic to 
make a sod house or dugout, and yet there was a diflerence 
in the skillfully made ones and those more carelessly and 
roughly constructed, both in appearance and the length of 
time they would last. Sod houses were short lived, becom- 
ing almost unhabitable in from ten to twelve vears, but 
dugouts, with occasional recovering and repairing, were as 
perminent as the earth. The best sod to make houses of 
was found upon basin, or low land, where there was a kind 
of flberous bunch grass, forming a lighter, tougher and more 
dureable sod than that found upon up-land. The sod was 
first turned over with a breaking plow, from twelve to four- 
teen inches wide and three or four inches thick. It was 
then cut into three or four foot strips or blocks with an axe 
or a sharp spade. The walls were laid with these blocks 
of sod just the same as walls of brick, stone or cement, 
with the exception that the sod house walls were made 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 47 

four feet thick, the windows and doors resemblini; railroad 
tunnels in a hill at a distance. The roofs were made b}' 
raising the end walls to a gradual pitch from each side to 
the center, placing heav}' logs or timbers, one in the center 
and one on each side between the center and the side walls 
to sup[)ort the roof and then laying poles close together, 
reaching from the timber in the center over the side walls to 
a sufficient projection for eaves, covering these poles with just 
enough straw or hay when pressed down to hold the dirt and 
not enough to give mice room to work in, laving a thin wall 
of sod along the eaves to hold the dirt and then covering the 
building with a coat of dirt about a foot and a half thick. 
While this was not a ver}' handsome roof it was good to 
keep out the rain and was unsurpassed by any other roof 
made by the hand ot man to keep out cold in winter and the 
hot rays of sun in summer. In fact sod houses and dugouts 
were very warm dwelling places in winter and cool in sum- 
mer, their walls being almost impenetrable by cold or heat. 
Dugouts were missnamed. They should have been called 
dugins as they were generally dug in a hill, knoll or ridge of 
land. After di>;ging the room the size desired the front of 
the dugout would be made of sod, logs or lumber in which 
all windows and doors were made. After the digging and 
work on the front of the dugout was completed the roof was 
made in the same manner as that of the sod house. 

Although the sod house home may have been lonely to 
some people, its pleasures and enjo3'ments rank foremost 
among the rich rewards of memory, stored by ninety-nine 
out of every hundred of those who partook of its blessings. 
Although the sod house was not a handsome structure to 
look upon, it occupies a place among those things mentioned 
by the old adage as "handsome is that handsome does." 
It certainly did the "handsome" part with its ever ready 
place of comfort and the greatest contentment possible. It 



48 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

certainly must be remembered by many as "Home, Sweet 
Home" in the fullest sense of that sentimental term. It was 
the childhood home of many and the home where many 
spent their youthful days — the happiest days of their lives. 
In fact a majority of the early settlers were young people 
who making a start spent their happiest days in the sod 
house or dugout homes. And it is scarcely probable that 
many of the pioneers can look back upon the free and happy 
sod house period, now gone forever, without feeling a tinge 
of real homesick lonelyness. To understand the cause for 
the heartfelt regrets for the passing of those homely days of 
many deprivations we review the social equality, the ever 
present sense of independence and freedom from care to- 
gether with the cheerfulness of the homes, made doubly so 
by the absence of other attractions. Every man, woman 
and child were as good as their neighbors and their sod 
homes were the abodes of cheer, good will and friendship, 
unsurpassed and unequaled in any day or age of the world. 




The above picture represents an oldtime residence in Seward county. 
The structure has the appearance of being ten or twelve years old and in a 
state of decay, but there were many such homes occupied during the pio- 
neer period and their occupants were reluctant about giving them up to go 
to ruin — it seemed like parting with a dear old friend, which was about 
true. The last one of those early abodes to shelter a family in Seward 
county stood in -N- precinct and was occupied until about 1893. It was 
one of the closing scenes of the pioneer period, and might have been twenty 
years old. Looking at one of these grand old honnly things, one beholds 
one of the stepping stones to, and greatest assistants in the settlement of the 
wild west. No building — we care not how grand — had a greater mission 
in the upbuilding and settlement of any country than the sod house had in 
the settlement of Nebraska. 



CHAPTER X. 



Amusements. — A Popular Song by l\vo Popular Young Men.-^A .Poutcn 
of July Celebration of Pioneer 1 ype. 



"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is an old 
adage and as true as Gospel. And it never suited the con- 
ditions of any place, at any time more than it did those of 
Seward county in the days of its early settlement. There 
were no public halls nor even churches where people could 
meet for social entertainment and a rest from the hum-drum 
monotony of every day tug at life's stearing wheel. It is 
true there was plenty of out-door sport, hunting and fishing, 
but this class of amusement became a form of labor, and the 
many sad reflections that crowded upon the over-worked 
body and at that time, seemingly unrewarded spirit caused 
a heart-braking lonelyness to overcome many who gave up 
their new homes and moved to other states. And lookinir 
back u|)on these matters it seems that no class of people can 
live, prosper and enjoy life in any country devoid of some 
kind of amusement — some place where stern realities of life, 
thought, care and bodily strain may be reversed and those 
sad reflections and continual depressing cares forgotten in a 
spirit of refresshing joyousness. 

Even wild Indians have their regular amusements, and it 
might seem that they pick a fight, one tribe with another, in 
oder to have a "war" or "scalp dance." And monkevs will 
collect in large numbers in the top of a tree and conduct 
some kind of a moving picture show, and dance in real time 
if they do not have any tune. 

With the pioneer settlers the problem of "what shall 



50 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

we do for amusement" was one of the despairing dilemmas of 
the day, but was solved and largely overcome by the sod 
house dances which became popular and pleasant diversions. 
Those entertainments were not for the display of fashionable 
style, but overflowing with cheer and good will, the real en- 
joyment reaped could not have been surpassed in any day 
and age of the world. Even the sawing of his fiddle strings 
by the fiddler to tune his fiddle was a pleasant opening over- 
ture to the occasion and a general tunmg up of spirits and 
disbursing of weary cares were immediate results. Then 
"on with the dance; let joy be unconfined" was the sentiment 
with "no sleep 'till morn," that chased "the glowing hours 
with flying feet." And on it went, the dust flying out of the 
cracks in the old sod house floor until it appeared as though 
a thrashing machine had been in motion in the room. But 
with all of their homelyness there was nothing that could be 
supplied to fill the breach, or "missing link" in the chain of 
successful contentment like the sod house dances. 

While these old time dances were social events among 
neighbors, enjoyed by old and young, amusing incidents fre- 
quently occurred in connection with them. Some of the 
quickest stepping chaps would immagine they were upon a 
race track and put on full steam and "throw off the breaks ' 
coming in at the end of the change a few jumps ahead of the 
music and everybody else. They were proud of their quick 
movements and generally called for "something quick and 
devilish.' What they realy meant by this we were never 
quite able to comprehend, but they frequently expressed the 
limit at nothing slower than the "Arkansaw Traveler," which 
they whistled from morning till night from the end of one 
engagement to the opening of another, interspersing a few 
promptings such as: "First four right and left; ballance four; 
ladies change; alamand left; grand right and left; once and 
a half around, and keep a hook'n on, a hook'n on" as ha{)py 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 51 

as a lark singing its sweetest strain. But with all their sim- 
plicity those days apoear in the far distant past, through 
gathering tears, as the brightest and happiest of all, now 
gone forever. The old time tunes and dances have about 
all "passed in their checks" and gone to slumber with the 
closing scenes of their days of usefulness on the prairies of 
Seward county, but they must not be forgotten. 

A POPULAR SONG. 

A little rime suited to its time became, by the addition of 
music, a popular pioneer song. It would be out of place to 
mention this song without also mentioning two popular 
young gentlemen of Seward county who, although both of 
them were single, and one of them is still enjoying the bless- 
ings of bachelorhood, Henr}' and Fred Bridenball, frequently 
sang the song as a duet at social gatherings. 

As near as we can get the poetry it ran like the follow- 
ing under the title of: 

IN THE SOD HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. 
In the sod house on the prairie 

Where 1 took my httle wife. 
We couldn't think but that we'd love it 

For there's naught but toil through life. 
CHORUS: 
Here we are, naught but chilling winds around us. 

And no better we can do 
But toil on though some be discouraged, 

For 'tis God 't will help us through. 
We are lonely but we are happy ■ , 

There are better times before: — 
Hark! 1 hear a friend a knocking 

At our lonely sod house door. 
CHORUS: 
Here we are, naught but chilling winds around us, 



52 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

And no better we can do, 
But toil on though some be discourag:ed 

For 'tis God 't will help us through. 
'Tis toil for those who are here — 

And toil for those who roam; 
Welcome! welcome friend and stranger. 

To our lonely sod house home. 
CHORUS. 

Independence Day Celebration, July 4th, 1872, 

What seems to have been the first 4th af July celebration 
in Seward county was held on that day 1872 in what was 
then callded C. D. Clark's grove, about ono mile south-east 
of the present location of Beaver Crossing. It was an event 
which had been talked of for several weeks, the principal 
mode of advertising, but was thought, by -many, to be a pre- 
mature undertaking which wonld fizzle for want of interest 
and patronage. But when that bright morning arrived, on 
the roads in every direction, there were scenes of activity. 
It appeared as though there had been a great awakening of 
people throughout the entire county and they were respond- 
ing to an important call for their presence. Milford sent a 
delegation of several wagon loads of people which were met 
by Beaver Crossing people, just over the hill, and escorted 
to the grounds, and before the time for opening the exercises 
the woods were full of people. Elder VV, G. Keen was the 
principal orator of the day, whose eloquence on that occasion 
is seldom surpassed on a 4th of July platform. This vv^as fol- 
lowed by a brilliant address by Dr. J. H. Woodward, and 
timely addresses by Daniel Millspaw and W. J. Thompson. 
The program was interspersed with music by a male quartet 
composed of S. G. Merriam and son George A. Merriam, 
and George Smiley of Alilford and William Livesley of the 
W^alnut creek district. And this part of the program was 




Pioneer scene. This sod house is represented in an end view of the 
structure, showing a window. 1 he growth of weeds and grass that have 
sprouted and grown from the shingles of the roof are visible evidence that 
there has been previous growing weather in that vicinity. Where this old 
time abode was located we are unable to state, but it represents a general 
spectacular appearance on the western frontier. And the character in the 
front view call up memories of the good old times when vent to happy 
thoughts were frequently expressed in the follwing feeling stanza. 
Oh, the hinges are of leather 

And the windows have no glass, 
The roof lets in the sunshine and the rain. 

But I'm as happy as a clam 
On this land of Uncle Sam 

In my little old sod shantv on the claim. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 53 

of a bii^h oracle, seldom, if ever equaled on such occasions 
in this vicinity. In addition to the vocal music instrumental 
music was furnished by "Anderson's string; band," consist- 
ing of two violins and cello, b}' William Anderson. John An- 
derson and Boone Anderson, three brothers. They made 
quite a musical display along the road from their homes in 
York county to the celebration ground, adopting the soul 
stirring manner of a circus band on parade. They were 
conveyed by a four horse team of which James G.Anderson, 
an older brother was the driver. And they stirred up the 
dreary spirits all along their route by delivering the "Devil's 
Dream," "iVIoney-Musk" and such popular tunes of the day 
in artistic style while they stood up in the wagon. The ex- 
ercises closed with a grand ball at John Osborn's new hotel. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Timber Craze of the First Settlers. Wind Breaks for Orchards — 
Fruit. 

The greatest and most de|)ressing need felt by a large 
majority of the early settlers of Seward county was timber 
for fuel. Some of the very early ones were fortunale enough 
to secure homesteads with enough timber to supply their 
own wants and some to spare their less lucky neighbors. 
But many of those who had been thus fortunate shared the 
prevalent timber craze of the time, and fearing a timber 
famine before they would be called to a warmer place, refus- 
ed to part with a stick of their wood tor love or money. And 
those who didn't share the fear of freezing to death if they 
let their neighbors have a little of their sur]->lus wood placed 
as much value upon it as if it had been obtained in the same 
manner as dust of the precious metal, panned out. Scrag- 
glv Cottonwood trees, twisting once and half around in an 
ordinary stovewood length, the only way of getting it small 
enough to go into a stove was to hew it— it couldn't be split--- 
sold for from five to ten dollars each, according to the size. 
And four foot wood of the same timber was valued at from 
six up to ten dollars per cord, the price being governed by 
the localitv. If in a locality where one or two, modernly 
called "tight wads," had a mono{)oly the higher price ]3re- 
vailed. And it required about four cords of this high priced 
fuel, for heating or cooking purposes, to equal one cord of 
hickory, oak, beech or hard maple. In fact willow timber 
or basswood when seasoned is better fuel than cottonwood. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 55 

I^ut the price of the fuel was not always the greatest obstacle 
in the way of having something to kee|) warm with and 
cook the wild onions and j)otato soup — very many of the 
settlers' homes were so far from timber that it required as 
much time to get a wagon load of poor wood from the woods 
as it does at the present time to get a car load of coal from 
the coal bank. In accordance with the real conditions of 
the time and the apparent future situation, the existing 
pinching necessity was viewed by nearly all with a))prehen- 
sion if not with alarm. The prospects for relief from the 
ever present burden of providing fuel was so discouraging 
that a general opinion prevailed that the country was worth- 
less unless timber could shortly be produced upon the baren 
land. In view of this idea there was a general rush for young 
trees to set out. Cottonwood was the most rai)[)id growing 
and the only kind of native timber that would do ,to saw into 
lumber therefore young cottonwood trees were in great de- 
mand. Some of those fortunate ones who had secured 
homesteads with a little timber along the rivers entered into 
speculation in the tree trade and started cottonwood nurser- 
ies by breaking patches of ground near the timber to catch 
the cottonwood seed and after it sprouted they sold the 
sprouts to their later arriving neighbors for from fifty cents 
to one dollar per hundred; price being governed by the size 
and age of the trees. But after two or three 3'ears the 
bottom was knocked out of this specuhtion by the discovery 
that cottonwood limbs stuck down in the ground would grow 
faster and make timber quicker than the little trees. This 
new discovery lightend the labor and expense of tree plant- 
ing to such on extent that cottonwood groves soon sprang 
up all over the prairies of Seward county, and rows of that 
timber were growing on homestead lines. There was no 
discount on the rapidity of the Cottonwood's growth. It had 
one rival in that line---the wild sunfiower---which also rivaled 



56 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

it in point of value. It ruined land for the production of 
other timber or vegetables and nothing would grow within a 
circle of several rods around it, and timber so great!}' desired 
proved to be an undesirable nuisance. Farmers were rais- 
ing an abundance of corn, the cobs being better fuel than 
Cottonwood, and the rail roads were bringing coal so cheap 
and plentiful that it did not |)ay to chop poor wood for fuel. 
It made poor fuel and shaky, warpy lumber not worth the 
expense of sawing. Many of the over zealous homesteaders 
to plant cottonwoods were at a loss to know how to get them 
out of the way fast enough. Some cut them down and some 
girdled them an let them stand until they rotted down. But 
there are thousands of them remaining and robbing the 
farmers of many acres of ver\' valuable land. The catali)a, 
soft ma|)le and white ash, where they have been cultivated 
are making tine growths of valuable timber and do not rob 
the soil. 

The earlv homesteaders were greenhorns in the matter 
of fruit production in about the same degree as they were in 
growing timber. And by misconception of the reqirements 
of the country for fruit growing were placed several years 
behind in that industr\\ There was a general opinion form- 
ed among them that fruit could not be produced in Nebraska 
unless there was first a good "wind break" of growing tim- 
ber at least on the north and west sides of the orchard 
ground. While this caused a delay in getting the young 
fruit trees started it was not the greatest discouraging fea- 
ture to a large majority. They made their "wind breaks" 
of Cottonwood trees and after a time and the cotton trees 
got well rooted apple trees would be set out close up to the 
"wind break." Then after the cottonwoods had sapped the 
ground and killed the apple trees frequent expressions of 
doubt about "raising fruit in Nebraska" were heard. But 
the truth still remains as solid as a rock that while oranges, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 57 

lemons. bananas and such southern fruit cannot be produced, 
fruit that will grow in any northern state will grow and do 
well in Nebraska. No state in the United States produces 
finer apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries and all kinds 
of berries. The first doubts and half-hearted efforts to raise 
fruit in Seward county, gave it such a backset it was "side- 
tracked" by farmers for other more easy raised, and per- 
haps less prohtable jiroductions, while other portions of the 
once Great American Desert, no better for fruit production, 
are banking thousands of dollars for their apple, pear and 
peach crop every year, Seward county barley produces its 
own fruit. While farmers can make quick and profitable 
crops of corn, wheat, oats, hogs, cattle, horses and hens', 
eggs they prefer to buy their fiuit instead of taking the time 
to raise it. But the fault for its non production cannot be 
attributed to the soil, climate nor wind. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Beaver Crossing. Pioneer Postoffices and Postmasters — The "Star 
Route" Served on the Back of a Broncho. — Beaver Ciossing Moved. 
Its Location and Name a iVlissHt — A btory. 

Althoui;h Beaver Crossing was perhaps better known 
throught the country in earl}' times than any other 1 )caHty 
in Se'vard county, there was nothing to indicate a town nor 
village, the name originating, as has previously been stated, 
from the freight route crossing of Beaver creek. Buu early 
in 1867 Roland Reed succeeded in getting a postoffice estab- 
Hshed under the name of Beaver Crossing, he receiving tl e 
appointment as tlie hrst postmaster, located me oiiice in his 
ranch, about one-haif mile east of Beaver creek. Mr. Reed 
served as postmaster two years, resigning the office to move 
upon his homestead when Daniel Millspaw was appointed, 
becoming Beaver Crossings second postmaster. About the 
time of Mr. Millspaw's appointment Thomas H. Tisdale 
arrived from the state of Wisconsin and established a gen- 
eral mercantile business in the John E. Fouse ranch, a short 
distance west of Beaver creek, Mr. Fouse having retired to 
his homestead. And in this store Mr. Millspaw located the 
postoffice, and apj)ointed T. H. Tisdale his clerk. In con- 
nection we will quote a paragraph from VV. \V. Cox's history 
which is somewhat missleading. On page 260 of that work 
in the general write-up of M precinct Mr. Cox says: 

"Smith & Ingals opened a little store in 1871 and Mr. 
Smith built the liouring mill the same season. At this time 
Thomas Tisdale had a little store at John E. Fouse's ranch 
at the crossing of the Beaver creek in the corner of L pre- 
cinct. Mr. Tisdale had secured a postof^ce which was sup- 
[)lid by a star route. Mail was carried on a broncho and 



HISTJRY OF SRWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 59 

was weekly; some snicl it was a weakly affair." 

Mr. Cox practicially makes the opening; of the "httle 
store" by Smith & In<;als the startinij; point of Beaver Cross- 
ing and gives no previous account of it. As has been seen, 
Roland Reed secured the pos' office two years before T. H. 
Tisdale opened his store in 1869. The postofihce had been 
estabnshed four years an J six months, at least, before the 
"little store" mentioned as being opened by Smi'.h & Ingals 
was built. Mr. Smith, who was in the flouring mill business 
at Pleasant Hill, Saline county, built the mill in the spring 
and early summer of 1871, and in the fall of the same \'ear 
he built and stocked the store as an ajunct to the mill. But 
the firm of Smith & Ingals was scarcely known in the local- 
ity as the store was opsnsd and conducted under the man- 
agement of Ed. Nye, a brother-in-law of Mr. Smith, And 
Ed. Nye was realy the only person interested in the success 
of this "new store" as it was commonly called. The writer 
had the honor of sawing on an old fiddle while neighbors 
and settlers from several distant points "warmed" the iioor 
of the new store before the interior was fitted for merchan- 
dise. 

Smith's flouring mill was built upon a portion ot Ross 
Nichols' farm in M precinct, four miles south-east of Beaver 
Crossing. And every indication pointing to that localitv as 
the coming business center for the surrounding country, the 
determination to select a permanent location for his business 
while the opportunity was favorable, was soon settled bv T. 
H. Tisdale and securing sufficient real estate form Ross 
Nichols he errected a new and commodous store building 
upon the site of the proposed town. And to these new 
quarters he transferred his mercantile stock. At the time 
he o[)ened his "little store at the Fouse ranch" he was not 
yet a resident of Nebraska not having resided long enough 
in the state, and therefore was not eligible to appointment 



60 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

as postmaster; therefore could not have had anything to do 
with getting or securing a post office as stated by Mr. Cox. 
But having become a citizen in due time, Daniel Millspaw 
resigned his postmastership and T. H. Tisdale became the 
third postmaster. Of course when the store was moved the 
postoffice had to go too or remain without a postmaster and 
it went with the outfit and Beaver Crossing was thus moved 
from L precinct four miles south-east and set d^vva in M 
precinct where it remains without any other reason on earth 
for being called Beaver Crossing than that Tom Tisdale was 
postmaster and wanted to move his store to another part of 
the county. But there is not the hrst thing in sight to jus- 
tify the name it bears. It is not even on or near Beaver 
creek and is merely a namesake or shadow of the old matter 
of fact name established many years before the new village 
was thought of. In regard to the "star route, served upon 
the back of a broncho" as a "weakly atiair," we will illustrate 
the facts in a recital of a little personal experience of the 
writer in 

A True Story of Marriage Under Diffiulties. 

In the fall of 1869 my "best girl" emmigrated with her 
parents from Harrison county, Iowa, to the wild plains of 
Seward county, Nebraska and located in a little log house 
on the West Blue river bottom a mile and a half west of the 
site of the present village of Beaver Crossing. By a little 
dilligent inquiry I learned that her post office address was 
Beaver Crossing. And to and from that place the back of 
the broncho was heavier laden each week for a period of six 
months at the end of which I concluded to ride the broncho 
myself. In accordance with this determination I left Logan, 
Iowa, on the 20th day of March, 1870, bound for Beaver 
Crossing via Council Bluiifs. As there were no railway ac- 
commodations in the direction I wanted to go, I had plan- 
ned to cross the Missouri river from the Bluffs to Omaha 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 61 

and take stage passage to Lincoln where 1 would connect 
with the "star route" to the Crossing. I stopped at the old 
historical Pacific House in Council Bluffs for dinner and told 
the landlord where I was going and how I wished to get 
there. And I was very much surprised when he told me 
that there was no connecting line either by stage or any 
other way between the city of Omaha and Lincoln, the cap- 
ital of the state. He said my only way to get to Beaver 
Crossing and avoid a week's lay-over was to go by rail that 
evening to Nebraska City and take the stage which would 
leave the next morning for Lincoln where the hack for my 
desired destination would leave the following morning. I 
boarded the south bound train on the Hannibal & St. Joe 
road early in the evening for Nebraska City, fifty miles down 
the river and arrived at what was then called East Nebraska 
City, on the opposite side of the river from the city proper, 
at about ten o'clock. A young gentleman representing the 
Sherman House in the City met the train and as he was 
checking baggage to be delivered at the Sherman House I 
permitted him to check my valise. In the morning when 
the stage was ready to leave for Lincoln I presented my 
check at the baggag room in the hotel and found that the 
highly prized article had been left on the other side of the 
river. This caused me more trouble than can well be im- 
magined. The stage would not wait a minute, and I either 
had to go with it or miss the hack from Lincoln to Beaver 
Crossing which meant a lay-over for one week, but in that 
satchel was a forty dollar wedding suit which I expected to 
need as soon as I reached my jorne^^'s end. I made up my 
mind, in a hurry, to leave the valise and get married in the 
clothes I had on, which were middling fair. Boarding the 
stage I found three traveling companions bound for Beaver 
Crossing, the trio consisting of a gintleman, lady and little 
boy. The gentleman was Mr. McCall, the lady his wife 



62 HISTCKV OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

the bo\' his step-son, well known in more recent years in the 
vicinity of Beaver Crossing as A. E. Sheldon, now the hus- 
band of Margaret Thompson, a pioneer girl of ranch days. 
The kid was about five years old and annoyed his mother 
and step-father by insisting in climbing out of the stage every 
time it stopped to run a race with it, a race in whicli the boy 
would certainly have been winner. Leaving Nebraska City 
at about eight a. m. the trip of fifty miles to Lincoln was 
completed at seven p. m. Stops were made along the route 
to change horses and mail. There were no metropolitan 
hotels in Lincoln in those days, but 1 found a very fair 
place to stay and where I eat my first buffalo steak, a much 
better and more digestible meat than is served at many u]v 
to date hotels of the present time. In the morning I realized 
for the first tim.e that the loss of my satchel had deprived 
me of a clean shirt at least, and that my chance to meet my 
girl and get married in a dirty shirt was very much too ap- 
}>arent for pleasant thoughts and looking down the street, 
which I think is now () street, saw a sign-board accross 
the sidewalk which displayed the words in large letters, 
"Clothing Store." It didn't require a second suggestion — I 
w^as soon within the portal of that establishment and if my 
voice shook a little when 1 asked the proprietor if he had any 
laundried white shirts it must have been caused by the flight 
down the street. But the shirt with a box of paper collars 
were purchased and I hurried back to the postoffice 'vhere I 
was to meet Mr. Adams, propritor of the Adams hack line 
to Beaver Crossing. Stepping into the j^ostoffice a peculiar- 
ly giddy sensation passed over me and glancing down to the 
floor I discovered that it was composed of wide cottonwood 
boards which had not only shrank, leaving wide cracks be- 
tween them, but had perha])s war])ed some making the floor 
rough and a little shaky. There were a number of full mail 
sacks laying by the side of the }iostoflice door and to the in- 



HISTORY OF SF.VVARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 63 

quiry of where they were to go Mr. Adams replied: "With us; 
the most ot them to Beaver Crossin.i^. " He then loaded 
them upon his spring wagon and started with his mail and 
one passenger on a two day's journey to Beaver Crossing, 
and while I assure the readers of this sketch that I did not 
ride a broncho they may rest assured that if the mail that 
was loaded onto that wagon had been laid on the back of a 
broncho the animal could not have moved a foot. The load 
consisted of mail for Milford, Camden, West Mills and Beaver 
Crossing. I took dinner at Milford, supper, lodging and 
breakfast at Camden. Leaving Camden the next sto[) was 
at West Mills of a half hour while the postmaster change! 
the mail. Continuing the jouriiey Daniel Millspaw's ranch 
was reached in time for dinner. Here, after enjoving a lit- 
tle amusement at the ex{)ense of the star route man, I met 
a surprise almost equal to the one over the loss of m v satchel. 
There was a very hne appearing lady visitor at the Mills- 
paw ranch and the amusing feature was brought up bv the 
mention, in some way, of whiskey from which the ladv took 
occasion to denounce the wet goods and everv one who used 
it. And the star route driver, Mr. Adams, joined in and 
gave vent to his hatred of the vile stufl' and denounced its use 
in terms so plain that a "way-fareing man, though a fool, 
need not err therein." He assented to everything the ladv 
said and in the language of card players, "went several chips 
better." But he failed to state that he had a gallon juc full 
of the "oh-be-joyfuU" under the seat in his hack which he 
had been "sampling" at the cornor of every section on the 
road from Lincoln. I immagined at the time that she had 
noticed the j)erfume of his breath, but perhaps not. After 
this interesting conversation the grand surprise in store for 
me was next in order, and after I had donned mv overcoat 
and buttoned it up to continue my journey to the little Io^t 
house of John D. Salnave, about one mile further west, the 



64 HISTOKY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

fine temperance lady advocate stepped up to me and without 
the least sign of a doubtful thought, extended her hand, say- 
ing: "Mr. Waterman, we would be pleased to have you 
visit us before you return to Iowa." Following her came an 
elderly ]ady---(jod bless her kind heart---and grabbing m\^ 
hand she shook it till my teeth rattled, calling me by name 
and wishing me much joy; and then came the third lady, 
grand enough to grace the finest habitations of a prince and 
giving me cheering welcome to the community she congrat- 
ulated me in a very kindly manner. Well, I didn't faint, but 
did forget where I was at and didn't come to my right 
mind sufficient to try to learn the names of the ladies until 
I got started with the hack and Uncle Dan Millspaw in the 
back seat, who gave the name ot the first lady as Mrs. Ross 
Nichols, the second, his wife, Mrs. Daniel Millspaw and the 
third their daughter, Mrs. Rosa ?vIcClellan. 

The facts are, I had been expected to appear in person 
in that neighborhood about a month before and business 
matters had forced me to postpone the trip. And as the 
}oung lady had made all necessary arangements for the wed- 
ding, with guests invited her disappointment at my non-ap- 
pearance was thoroughly understood b}^ sympathizing neigh- 
bors. Those ladies knew this and perhaps had heard of the 
second proposed trip, and as the travelers over the star route 
to Beaver Crossing were limited in number, they fell sure 
that I was the man they were expecting to see. 

Here I wish to mention Daniel Millspaw, because con- 
nected with his name is a memory which remains and will 
remain with me until my time passes to eternity. He is the 
one who as justice of the peace, prounounced the ceremony 
uniting myself and life companion in holy wedlock at the 
home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. John D. Salnave, 
near Beaver Crossing, March 26, 1870. This occuring a 
few days after the experience at his house and also following 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 65 

Other difficulties, similar to the loss of the satchel, bv which 
the wedding was delayed. Business affairs in Iowa de- 
manding my immediate return, as we could go with William 
Collier who was going to make a Sunday drive to Lincoln we 
were married on Saturday. Sunday morning broke with a 
raging, blinding north-west blizzard of the old time grade 
and we were corralled for four days. But we tinallv got off. 
spending two days and one night on the route to Nebraska 
City where 1 found the satchel at the hotel. Crossing the 
river in the morning to take railway passage, having run 
short of cash I presented a bank draft to pay for tickets, but 
the ticket agent said I would have to be identified to get 
tickets with that. Here was the worst appearing dilemma 
I had met, but fortunatlv mv wife had an uncle, ludire Ed. 
Reed, also an aunt and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Royal Buck 
residing in the city and we recrossed "old muddy" and spent 
twentyfour hours in a very pleasant visit with the uncle and 
aunt and their families. Judge Reed cashed my draft and 
the journey was completed without further trouble. I trust 
that the narration of the difffculties incountered on this short 
trip and the marriage, illustrates.the condition of the country 
in regard to travel and the transit of mail in those early 
times in a more comprehensible manner than in anv other 
way of presenting them. The railway fare from Logan to 
Beaver Crossing at the present time is two dollars and 
twenty cents, and the time reqired to make the trip is five 
hours. I was four days and three nights making the same 
journey. And the expense of the round trip, including the 
cost of the shirt and box of collars, wedding fees and return 
fare for the bride was ninety-five dollars and fifty cents. 
The Beaver Crossing Mail. 
Regarding the Beaver Crossing mail in pioneer time be- 
ing a "weakly affair" there is a greater reason than Adams' 
jug to say it was a strong one. It is true it came by what 



66 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

was called star route, only once a week, but for this reason 
it was too heavy for the back of a broncho, at least as earl}^ 
as the spring of 1870. Beaver Crossing was the ternninus 
of the mail route and mail was brought there for settlers on 
an area of territory reaching into York and Fillmore counties, 
and the fact must be apparent that with the rush of settle- 
ment in the years of 1869 to 1870, inclusive, there must have 
been a large and increasing demand for mail service. Com- 
munication between the homesteaders and their recent old 
homes was a matter of absolute necessity to the progress of 
the country's settlement. While there was not such a vast 
amount of second class and ordinary mail matter in those 
days as at the present time, it can scarcely be denied that 
mail to and from Beaver Crossing of the first class, or let- 
ters, was heavier then than at the present time. Although 
the postoffices at Camden and Milford were served by the 
mail route three times a week in 1870 the heaviest mail to 
be delivered in any postofifice m Seward county at that time 
passed through those offices to Beaver Crossing. 

PIONEER POSTOFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. 

The first of the pioneer postoffices was opened with 
James Johnson as pestmaster at Camden in 1865. This 
office served the people of the entire county of Seward and 
many settlers in Saline county and counties further west, for 
a period of about two years when an office was opened with 
J. L. Davison as postmaster at Millford, and almost simul- 
taneously^ with this postoffices were established at West 
Mills, on the West Blue river, west of Camden and at Beaver 
Crossing and the star route was extended from Lincoln via 
Pleasant Dale. Millford and Camden to West Mills and 
Beaver Crossing. Thomas West was the posmaster at the 
Mills and Holland Reed at the Crossing. 

About the time these latter offices were opened the enter- 
prising Httle settlement in the vicinity of the proposed town 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 67 

of Seward resolved to get a postoffice and after making an 
inefifectual effort to induce Lewis Moffit to accept the posi- 
tion of postmaster an application was sent to a Nebraska 
representative in congress to have the honor of postmaster 
bestowed upon Mr. Moffit as a pleasant surprise regardless 
of his determination not to accept it. He was the only 
available man, being the only resident of the site of the pro- 
posed town and his house the only suitable place tor the 
postoffice. The application was dul}' considered, the ap- 
pointment made and Seward had a postoffice and post- 
master. But the patronage was so small that the govern- 
ment declined furnishmgit with a star route. With a brand- 
new postoffice and postmaster the people of Seward 
were nol going to be nonplussed for the want of a mail agent 
and they contracted with E. L. Clark, a one armed soldier, 
to carry the mail to and from Camden once a week for one 
dollar and fifty cents a trip, funds for the purpose being rais- 
ed by subscription. The distance from Seward to Camden 
was about fifteen miles and Mr. Clark made the trips on foot 
and carried the mail in an old army haversack. 

Several postoffices were established in the northern pre- 
cincts of the county in pioneer days. A postoffice was open- 
ed in Milten Langdon's house on section 21, at Oak Groves 
in 1869 with G. B. Harding as postmaster. It was first 
served by "buckboard" star route and later the mail was 
carried by stage. A postoffice named Orton was kept in a 
farm house in D precinct in the late sixties, Stephen Phillips 
being the postmaster. There was also one maintained at 
Marysville in C precinct for several years. The German- 
town postoffice was established after the advent of the B. & 
M. rail road in 1873, with John Westerhoff as postmaster. 
The postoffice at Pleasant Dale was established in 1870 with 
James Her as postmaster. The office was located in Mr. 
Iler's residence, and if our memory serves us correctly it was 



68 HISTCKY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

a structure made of small stones which undoubtedly had 
been gathered along Middle creek, Pleasant Dale being in 
the Middle creek valley, in the eastern portion of the county. 
There is an abundance of stone along this valley. The 
Utica postofhce, established in the fall of 1877, was the 
last one in the list of what might be called pioneer postofihces 
of Seward county. T. E. Standard was its first postmaster, 
through whose efiorts the office was shortly advanced to a 
mone}' order office. 

The foregoing postoffices of the pioneer period were 
small and perhaps as Mr. Cox says "weakly affairs," but 
their mission was great and grand. And we feel safe in 
saying that there never was the same number of mail de- 
liveries to serve the same number of inhabitants that did the 
real good to the patrons and the country in which they were 
located that those offices did. 

And the benevolent pioneer postmasters whose labors in 
the performance of service to their neighbors was, with the 
exception of the reward of appreciation, practicially an un- 
rewarded act of kindness to the patrons of their offices, to 
them and their offices is due the credit for having assisted 
the pioneer settlers in the civilized settlement of Seward 
county. 




1 his picture represents an "old land mark," undoubtedly remembered 
by many hundred pioneer settlers as the place where their bread material was 
manufactured. It was built just south of the present location of Beaver 
Crossing in 1(S71 by Smith and Ingles. It was sold to W'm. J. 1 hompson 
in the fall of 1872, and he conducted the mill for several years, finally sell- 
ing it to J. F. M. Uimery who later sold it to George Winand. It was 
again transferred in a short time to Mr. Dimery who permitted it go out of 
use. It shortly afterwards become the property of John Martin who repared 
it and placed it in working order. His son, Robert Martin has conducted 
its business several years and is still the miller. There was a politically his- 
torical event connected with the sale and transfer of this mill to \\'"illiam J. 
1 hompson. He had just been elected, after a hard worked campaign, to 
represent his district in the state legislature and just about the time for him 
to assume his duties at the state capital he made a deal for the mill when 
he absolutely refused to serve as one cf the state's law makers on the 
grounds that he could not afford to leave his business. 



CHAPTER Xlll. 



Pioneer Towns — Stores — Saw and Grist Mills — Bridges and Highways. 



Camden, located in the intersecting vallies of the North 
and West Blue rivers which unite a short distance below, 
and also at the freight route crossing of the North Blue, was 
the first place in Seward county to present an appearance of 
a village or town. It was a beautiful locality with its expanse 
of bottom land, the sparkling rivers with their winding beds 
bordered with rows of timber and the distant hills on either 
side. This attracting the attention of the public travelers 
upon the freight route induced early settlement and the form- 
ation of a town began as early as 1866. A postoffice had 
already been established. The first store of the countv was 
opened here in 1866 by Wm. Buckhannan and a saw and 
fiouring mill was erected by H. W. Parker and Fordyce 
Roper at an expense of $15,003 the same season. The mill 
was first class and an enterprise of mestimable value to the 
town and general public throughout the county. A hotel 
soon followed and then the second store. A blacksmith had 
located a shop early and engaged in shoeing freight teams, 
and added to the ringing music of the hammer and anvil 
was heard the duller rattle of the carpenter's hammer, ad- 
ding many dwelling houses. In March 1870 we were a 
guest over night at the Camden hotel, the name of which 
with the name of the proprietor we have forgotten, but we 
remember that he was a very busy business man, having, 
besides his hotel to oversee, the responsibility of the office 
of justice of the peace. There were two stores and both 
were kept in log buildings, and one of them carried a line of 



70 HISTC/KY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

drugs and patent medicine in addition to its general mer- 
chandise entitling it to be classed as a department store. 
There were a collection of dwelling houses surrounding the 
business center, the {)lace appearing like a town of two or 
three hundred inhabitants. And it is probable that it had 
about reached its growth limit as it gradually decreased from 
about that time. 

Nine miles north of Camden, where the steam wagon 
road crossed the North Blue river, the second village in 
Seward county sprang into existance during the period from 
1 866 to 1868. Davison & Reed started a grist and saw mill 
in 1866 and as this mill was located just above the old tord 
crossing of the river the town was named "Milford." But 
while the mill was in line of })rogress the ford passed into 
retirement by the errection of a bridge, the second one to 
sjian the North Blue river in Seward county. This bridge 
was what might been called a "wild west bridge." It was 
a true representation of pioneer art and called to memory 
the truthful addage, "necessity is the mother of invention." 
It was made by sinking large pihng into the earth upon 
which stringers of logs were placed reaching from the bank 
to the first pile and continued from one to the other until the 
opposite bank was reached. Upon these stringers small 
])oles were thickly lain and then covered with a matt of hay 
and dirt. J. L. Davison built the bridge to accomodate the 
travel upon the steam wagon road while he was in the bus- 
iness of keeping a ranch at that place. Milford was located 
in an attractive area of Seward county territory. The North 
Blue river here was superior to the Nebraska streams in gen- 
eral, being imbeded in rock. The bottom of the stream was 
composed of large liag stone, from which we took several 
perch of liag stone in 1874 for a foundation to the Beaver 
Crossing school house. This condition of the river aiiords 
the place one of the best water power sites in Nebraska and 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 71 

it has been improved. The settlers were progressive and as 
early as i865 had made apparant signs of future advance- 
ment. Doom & Etherly opened the hrst mercantile store, 
being follo-.ved by S. G. Mirriam & Son with the second one 
in a short time. 

In March 1870 we were at Alilford and took dinner at 
the Alilford hotel, kept by L. D. Laune. We became ac- 
quainted with the two professional men of the county capital, 
D. C. AicKillip, attorney at law and Dr. Band who occupied 
a building perhaps twelve feet wide by about sixteen in 
length with an assortment of drugs and medicines, and we 
believe he called it his drug store. He did not remain long 
at Milford. but moved to Crete when that place was first 
founded. Dr. J. H. Woodward settled at Milford in 1870 
and Dr. G. W. Brandon and Dr. Mitchell came to the place 
about two years later. Dr. Woodward and D. C. Mclvillip 
moved to Seward shortly after the location of the county 
seat at that place. They were both Union soldiers in the war 
of the rebelion. 

One of the two first newspapers published in Seward 
county, The Blue Valley Record was started at Milford in 
December, 1870 by Culver & Parsons. It was a neat and 
enterprising little local newspaper and appeared regularly 
every week until 1873 when the publishers moved it to Lin- 
coln and consolidated it with a paper in that citv. However 
Mr. Culver did not remain in Lincoln, but returned to his 
former home after about one year. . 

A contention over the matter of the county seat sprang up 
between Camden and Milford in the early period of their ex- 
istance, and as Milford was located nearer the center of the 
couuty it won the contest. While this was a brief and tem- 
porary stimulus to Milford it seemed to be almost a death 
blow to Camden. However Milford retained the prize but 
a few years when it was relocated at Seward. Milford's 



72 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

pioneer postmasters were changed several times, the emol- 
uments of the office undoubtedly being the honor more than 
the salary the desire to hold on to the position was limited 
only to the time the next fellow would take it. J. L. Davi- 
son, the hrst postmaster, was appointed in 1867 and was 
succeeded by Mr. Etherly in 1868, J. H. Culver succeeding 
him in 1871. Two years later, in 1873, Thomas A. Healey 
was appointed and held the office till 1876 when he resigned 
to accept the office of representative in the state legislature, 
his wife succeeding him in the postoffice, and was succeeded 
by S. D. I. Emerson in 1879, who held the office six years 
when it passed from the pioneer period. 

Still farther up the North Blue river Seward, the third 
place to enter u})on the stage as a town, became a preten- 
tious village early. The first step towards the formation of 
a town was taken in 1868 when Thomas Graham was em- 
ployed by Lewis Moffit to survey the first section of the 
town-site and lay it out in lots. In the same season Beaty 
& Davis opened a store, W. H. Tuttle built a small portion 
of what later become the Commercial Hotel, Dr. L. Walker 
added a small residence and with prospects of new recruits, 
in the fall of the same year Seward was marshaling its 
legions to capture the county seat. And a contest was soon 
in "full blast" between that place and Milford, the one to 
gain and the other to retain the scat. The contest was 
waged with furious energ}' by both sides, mixed with a little 
wild west trickery for a long and bitter period. Seward had 
the advantage of being located nearer to the center of the 
county, and Milford was burdened with the dissatisfaction of 
Camden on account of the previous county seat contention 
and when the })roposition to relocate the county seat at Sew- 
ard was finally submitted to a vote on October tenth, 1871, 
it carried b}'^ a safe majority and Seward was on the map 
as a county seat town. And its developement as a village 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 73 

was rapid. With the assurance that the county seat ques- 
tion was permanently settled new industries began to appear. 
Professional men — lawyers and doctors were soon mingling 
with the pioneer homesteaders. And added to the former 
important feature in the up-building of Seward the B. & M. 
rail road reached the place early in the spring of 1S73. 
With this enterprise came the establishmet of a standard 
market for farm produce which stimulated other branches 
of business and the new town, scarcely four 3^ears old. could 
begin to view its future prospects above the support to be 
obtained from the county seat. Energetic and substantial 
grain buyers were soon upon the scene of future operations 
and ware houses were erected in view of handling the coming 
fall's business. Among the resident grain buyers Beaty & 
Davis took a prominent part, and as a special grain dealer 
who came to Seward to make that line his business, E. C. 
Cams was the most prominent of the early dealers. What- 
ever may have been the general impression of thought en- 
tertamed by the public of Mr. Cams, he was an able man in 
his line of work and was a jDillar of great strength to the city 
of Seward, holding the confidence of the farmers in the pur- 
chase ot their grain he was an attraction which drew the 
rural patronage from the entire county. A brick yard was 
placed in opporation the same year. Joel Tishue erected a 
large brick store building and opened a general mercantile 
store which was followed in a short time by the opening of 
stores by Herman Diers and S. Adler. A store was opened 
by the Grange along about 1874 which later was made the 
headquarters for the distribution of aid to the grasshopper 
sufferers throughout the county. E. A. Policy was an early 
time jewelry dealer and Cyrus Chapin entered into the music 
trade about the same time, dealing in organs, pianos, and 
sewing machines. Phil Unitt opened a meat market, in 1873 
and in the same year the State Bank of Nebraska, the first 



74 HISTCJKY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

bank in Seward county, was established by Claudius Jones. 
A court house was an early enterprise. It was an inexpen- 
sive structure, but cost more than it was worth lo the county 
as a court house. It stood just west of the present business 
portion of the city. It passed out of use as a court house 
before the close of the seventies and court was held in the 
opera house and other rented rooms. And the rooms for 
countv officials were also rented in one of the business blocks. 
Whitcomb & Williams were prominent figures in the early 
business of Seward, in the line of livery, feed and sale stable 
which they conducted for several years. The Seward 
County Bank, the second bank in the county, was founded 
in 1876 by S. C. Langworthy. This bank merged into the 
First National Bank later on. Among the early business 
we recall to memory A. J. Calender, coal dealer. Dun- 
baugh Brothers, dealers m drugs and medicines. S. D. 
Atkins, dealer in and manufacturer of harness etc. J. W. 
Dupin, a prominent citizen of Seward in early days, and an 
early homesteader, we first remember as a clerk in the 
(jrange Store in 1S74, afterwads in the county clerks office, 
postoffice and county judge, j. A. Fallen, contract builder 
for many years, located in 1872. J. P. Gannon, paper 
hanger and decorater settled in 1875 — a comrade soldier m 
the war of the reblion. VV. B. Barrett, one of the first lum- 
ber merchants in the county, came in 1872. Mr. Barrett 
was a Union soldier in the war of the rebellion. J.A. Sheeiy, 
a bridge carpenter, settled in 1871 and followed his line of 
business throughout Seward county for many years. VVm. 
Shultz, boot and shoe merchant came to Seward and entered 
businf'ss in 1875. VVm. H. Wait, a stone mason, settled in 
1875 and worked at his trade for many years. He was an- 
other comrade soldier in the war of the rebellion. Chas. K. 
Humphrey, a carpenter and builder was a settler in the 
early seventies. He was a Union soldier in the war of the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 75 

rebellion — his son, Orson Egbert Humphrey, a Seward boy 
born Jul}' 2S, 1877 — shared his father's patriotism and en- 
listed in Co. M ist Nebraska volunteers and served in the 
Philiippines where he was severly wounded in the battle of 
Quinga, April 23, 1899, He was brought back to the home 
of his childhood where death clamed the young soldier boy, 
from the effects of his wounds, after several months of intense 
suffering, November 17, 1899. August Richman, who was 
for many 3'ears a drygoods and clothers salesman, settled in 
1875. Jeff Ogg, an 1870 pioneer, was for a long time a 
gentlemanly clerk for Joel Tishue, and a traveling salesman 
later for an eastern wiiolesale house. He was a Union sol- 
dier in the war ot the rebellion. Edmund Mclntire, B.cS: ?vl. 
railway land agent, settled in 1871. L.G.Johns, city treas- 
urer and twice county treasurer, an 1S70 pioneer. He 
was a Union soldier during the war of the rebellion. J. VV. 
Gladwish, one of the earliest settlers and the most conspic- 
uous figure in Seward county, has served the city in differ- 
ent official capacities, and is now serving the twenty-seventh 
year of continuous service as police judge, in the eight_v-sixth 
year of his age. He was a Uuion soldier in the war of the 
rebellion. J.F. Goehner as one of the later pioneer business 
men of Seward, opened a grocery store in 1875. 

The early professional settlers of Seward were R. S. and 
T. L. Norval, D. C. McKillip, George W. Lowley, William 
Leese, and H. Lewis, attorneys. Doctors L. Walker, J. PL 
Woodward, Dillon, Beechly and Reynolds. Five of these 
were Union soldiers during the war of the rebellion; Dr. J. 
H. Woodward, Dr. Beechley, attorneys D. C. McKillip, G. 
Lowley, and Wm. Leese. In regard to this we will say 
that the city of Seward will never again have as large a pre- 
centage of veteran soldiers on its list of business and profes- 
sional men as it was honored with in its pioneer era. How- 
ever we hope and trust that comrade Gladwish may remain 



76 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

with it until he has rounded out his five score years at least. 

A saw mill, which was the fifth one in the county, was 
built at Seward by H. L. Boyes in 1867-68. To this Mr. 
Boyes added a fiourini^ department in 1870. This mill was 
a beneficient enterprise to the pioneer settlers along the 
North Blue river and through northern portions of the coun- 
ty. It was a popular bread-stuff factory and was known 
throughout the county as the Banner Mills, being decorated 
in the national colors. But its foundation seemed to have 
been faulty and becoming overloaded with farmers' grists the 
bottom fell out one night in 1871, letting the scores of grists, 
loose grain and mill machinery drop into the river. This 
was an unfortunate loss to the proprietor of the mill and also 
to its patrons. In those times of limited supplies the loss of 
a grist meant to many persons almost a calamity, and the 
loss of the services of the mill was no small item in the mis- 
fortune. Mr. Boyes did not become entirely discouraged, 
but went to work with energy and perseverance and soon 
had the burrs in motion again. 

What might be termed the second Seward flouring mill 
was built on the North Blue river two miles below the city, 
in 1874 by Cooper & Henderson. Captain Robert T.Coop- 
er was a resident of Seward, a veteran of of the war of the re- 
bellion. 

Seward's pioneer postmasters were frequently changed, 
the position undoubtedly becoming burdensome was resigned 
whenever a new one was found that would take it. Lewis 
Moffit v/as appointed in 1867 and was suceeded by W. K. 
Davis in 1868. Mr. Davis held the office three years and 
resigned when E. L. Clark, the one armed mail carrier was 
appointed, and was succeeded by L. G. Johns in 1873, and 
Mr. Johns held on to the office four years when Wm. Red- 
ford was appointed, being succeeded by Chas. VanPelt in 
1881. During this period the increase in the mail handled 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 77 

was extensive and the increase in the postmaster's compen- 
sation ma\' be marked by the seeming increase in the post- 
master's inclination to hold on to the oilice. 

The lust bridges to span the Blue river at Seward were 
somewhat in the line of architecture with ihe Milford bridge 
and were relics of pioneer ingenuity until along in the seven- 
ties. 

Going back from the early settlement of the three hrst 
towns in Seward county to 1864 the first saw and grist mill 
of the county appears, nine miles west of Camden on the 
West Blue river, and known as West's Mills. It was small 
in size, but great in the minds and hearts of the people of 
the scattering settlements of Seward county. Upon the 
proprietor ot this enterprise, Mr. Thomas West, they looked 
with overflowing gratitude and their patronage was sufficient 
to make it a financial success. While there was never any 
town at West's Mills Mr. West kept a general supply store 
in early times before other stores were opened. 

Twelve miles farther west at Beaver Crossing a store was 
opened m the fall of 1869 b\' Thomas H. Tisdale, and the 
present village of Beaver Crossing was formed in 1871 with 
two stores, a hotel built by John Osborn, a blacksmith shop 
under the management of Edward Maule, a sod school house 
and residents to the number of about fifty peof)le. Smith's 
flouring mill was built the same season. The pioneer post- 
masters were Roland Keed from 1867 to 1869; Daniel Mills- 
paw from 1869 to 1870 and T. H. Tisdale from 1870 to 1884. 

The pioneer bridges in the vicinity of Beaver Crossing 
were similar in construction to ]. L. Davison's bridge at 
Milford with the exception that the\^ were generally made in 
one season and washed out the next, being the main damage 
the community sustaind by annual high waters. During the 
high water seasons citizens residing south of the river exper- 
ienced much difficulty in crossing the river for mail and other 



78 HTSTCKV OF SEWARP COUNTY, NFERASKA. 

necessaries nt the stores in tlie village. One season about 
1872 or 'J2,^ there was a ccmtinued high water for several 
weeks and some enterprising genius substituted a wagon box 
for a ferrv boat. This ferry became (|uite })opular and oc- 
casionillv trimsferred young ladies form one side or the 
other to attend dances and other entertainments'. Two 
young ladies were being transferred on one of those {)ieasure 
trips by a young gentleman an 1 when the craft got about to 
mid-stream one of the !a lies lost her balance and fell over- 
board. She could not swim and as she was pretty solid in 
make-up the young man had extreme difficulty, requiring all 
of his strength an A endurance to rescue her. But strange as 
it mav seem the hero did not marry the girl and it is doubt- 
ful if she ever crossed the ferry with him again, but she is 
still a resident of Beaver Crossing. 

One of the [)rominent and familiar objects that is cer- 
tainly imbeded in the memory of all early settlers of the 
vicinity ot Beaver Crossing is the form of T. H. d'isdale in 
his accustomed appearance mounted upon a dry-goods box 
or other elevation upon the arrival of the mails, with his 
hands full of letters and a crowd of anxious settlers surround- 
ing him on all sides and silently waiting while he calls the 
name of the one each missive is addressd to and at the reply 
"here," tossing it into the audience in the direction from 
which the response came. At first this was a weekly at- 
traction, then a tri-weekly and a little later on one of daily 
occurance. The mail route to Beaver Crossing was from 
Lincoln and was served weekly until after the arrival of the 
rail road at Seward in 1873 when it was changed and deliv- 
ered from Seward three times a week for a time and in due 
course of time was increased to a daily. Wdiere Mr. I'isdale 
got his novel mode of delivering the mail we have never been 
able to learn, but it certainly had some commendable feat- 
ures. It was convenient and with the limited room in all 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 79 

business builciings of that date the modern way of deHvering 
mail to a crowd of anxions |)atrons was a difficult matter. 
It had one advantage, at least, oi the later manner of dis- 
tribution in country i)ostoffices — the (]uiet which should pre- 
vail around the office during the distribution of mails was 
not disturbed by hoodlums or (?) ladies — everybody attended 
to their own business and listened to hear their name called. 

Marysv^lle in C -precinct was a pioneer town earlv in the 
seventies with an excellent grist mill built bv Luke Auger in 
1870. Also a store, postoffiie, school and church. A Luth- 
eran church was established here early, making it a po[)ular 
place for members of that denomination to gather with their 
families. 

The first and only exclusive saw mill and the onlv mill 
to run by steam in Seward county was built at Oak Groves 
in 186S by Kirkham & Mughes. This was m H precinct, 
there being within the precinct an abundance of oak and 
other excellent saw timber which was an inspiration to the 
projectors of the saw mill enterprise. In addition to its 
fine timber supply. Oak Groves were noted for superior lime 
stone from which lime was made and sold in different local- 
ities of the county and state. 

(jormantown, in H precinct, on the line of raibvav from 
Lincoln to Seward was surveyed and platted into village lots 
in 1874 by Miland Fraisure. V. Bick was the first store 
keeper but was shortly followed by Charles Howland as a 
mercantile competitor. Its school and postoffice were earlv 
establishments. The early postmasters were John Wester- 
hoif, Benjamin Walker, Charles Fetterman, Charles Hans 
and L. S. Callahan. An earh^ grain market was opened 
which was followed b\^ the errection of two elevators. 

Ftica, in F precinct, fourteen miles west of Seward on 
the B.& M.rail road is the last village or town in the count v 
that might be termed a pioneer town. It w^as founded in 



80 HISTCKY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

1877 upon the completion of the railroad to the place. The 
business and future pros[)erity of the town seemed settled 
upon advanced lines from its first introduction to the public. 
The town was laid out by Pion. Geo. A. Derb\" upon a ])art 
of his homestead. Geo. Liggett was an early grain buyer 
and Oscar Kagan helped this business in the new town. T. 
E. Stanard was the first {)ostmaster and Joseph Jones open- 
ed the first store in 1877. Following closely u}X)n the intro- 
duction of these business enterprises George Goodbrod built 
a hotel, Fritz Beckard started a lumber yard, (loehner & 
Wilkens established the second store and C. C. Turner built 
a blacksmith shop, 

THE SEWARD COUNTY HIGHWAYS. 

The established roads of the pioneer era were "high" all- 
most any way the greater number cared to travel. And to 
stop, or turn that travel to other lines was st)mewhat like 
stopping or turning the course of a tornado. Roads on sec- 
tion lines or straight in any direction were problems to be 
considered upon the fundamental basis of whether that was 
the best road or not. Of course the practice of selecting the 
most choice routes for roads insured as good roads as the 
country could aliord. And it would have been about as dif- 
ficult to convince a settler that highways would be forced to 
run on section lines in the near future as it would to convince 
a wild Indian that the world is round. It didn't appear to 
be to the interest of an}' one in those days, to discontinue 
the short cuts across sections to town, especially when the 
cross cuts were the best roads. We made a drive from 
Beaver Crossing to Fairmont in 1873. After we had travel- 
ed, as we supposed, so far that the town we were lookmg for 
ought to be in sight, we met a gentleman near the corner of 
a section and asked him if he could tell us the road to Fair- 
mont. He said he thought he could and pointing to the sec- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 81 

tion corner said: "You angle cater cornering across that 
section and then go west a quarter of a mile and angle cater 
cornering across the section south-west," and this "angling 
cater cornering" was the continued instruction until he had 
us angling about twenty sections. And before we got to 
our journey's end we concluded he was about right. We 
have seen teams plowing in fields and trains of loaded 
wagons "angling cater cornering" right through the plowed 
ground, and no change could be made for growing crops or 
blasts of winter. If a farmer had the temerity to place an 
obstruction in the track to turn the travel in some other direc- 
tion the teamsters would either get off of their wagons and 
throw it out of the way or drive around it. While this may 
seem to be a lawless procedure, in reality it was right. In 
the wild state of the country when the first settlements were 
made there was no established system of highways and they 
become established by general usage. People traveled long 
distances to mill and to market and were manv times in 
strange localities and to be forced to leave the established 
road bed and hunt a new way was very discouraging and 
unjust. Many times in trying to pass around a plowed field 
the route would prove to be impassable. In those davs of 
"pioneer highways" there was no such thing as road funds, 
road tax nor work on the roads, but there were no bad roads. 

'God made the forets," God made the plains and pioneer roads. 
Man made the towns," and Man made the pioneer bridges. 

The pioneer storekeepers are worthy of more than a pass- 
ing notice. Their stores were all, as W. W. Cox invariably 
calls each one, "a little store," but little as they were, their 
mission for wide spread good to the early settlers was as 
large and boundless as the prairies upon which their enter- 
prising hands had placed them. They formed one of the 
strongest links in the chain that connects the settlements of 
the savage wilds of Seward county with their modern civiliza- 



82 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

tion. No defiartment store of the }->resent day so unselfishly 
supplies the general needs of the public as did those "little 
stores" in the almost disparing dark days of pioneer life. 
They were large enough to supply the needs of their patrons 
and many times supplied more needs than those patrons had 
sufficient means to pay for. We have just one of those ben- 
efactors to the needy homes of Seward county to consider 
and firmlv believe that the one represents the others. Thos. 
H. Tisdale was never known to turn a customer away empty 
handed of needed goods regardless of inability to [^ay. He 
helped anv and all who needed his help and it is to be re- 
gretted that he so many times suffered loss as a reward for 
his kindness that he was crowded to the limit of his resour- 
ces to keep the wolf of dispare and distruction from closing 
the door of his busmess. This partially apparent failure was 
not on account of lack of business ability. Mr. Tisdale was 
the ablest business man Beaver Crossing ever had and by 
his wise and careful management extricated himself and bus- 
ness from the troubles brought upon him by his kind hearted 
treatment of others with a clean record and good credit. 
He did more to aid the early settlement in his locality than 
all others combined and while he reaped a very small reward 
in this world it is to be sincerly hoped that he has reaped the 
full measure in that eternal world to which he passed July 
7th, 1888. There were no class of men in pioneer times 
more deserving of kind and thankful rememberance than the 
earlv store keepers, now all gone to their final rest. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PIONEER SCHOOLS OF SEWARD COUNTY. 



The settlements of Seward county during the sixties were 
scarcely condensed enough to form school districts or build 
school houses. However, regardless of this condition the 
prevalent desire of the settlers to have their different locali- 
ties placed upon a firm foundation for the expansion and 
growth of knowledge through the channels of public educa- 
tion seemed to have been bred and born in the mind of everv 
individual homeseeker. In fact the school appeared to be 
an indispensible part of the home necessities. And we find 
efforts were put fourth for the forming of school districts and 
the construction of school houses as early as 1S65, and the 
success gained in the establishment of a school at Camden 
and at West's Mills that \"ear mark the beginning of Seward 
county schools. And the establishment of these two first 
schools also mark the advanced settlement in the foremost 
localities along the great western highway, the "old freight 
route." In the great rush of immigration from 1866 to 1872 
schools and school houses sprang into existance in everv 
precinct in the county. The greater number of these attain- 
ments were not gained through acts of state legislatures nor 
by the aid of public school funds, but through the determind 
will of an enterprising and public spirited class of citizens. 
They did not wait for the decrees of goverument to furnish 
funds to build school houses, but applied their muscle and 
ingenuity to the task of erecting their own places of learning 
and following this with subscription funds to pav teachers. 
The school houses 'vere rude and homely, but thev bore all 
the assuring signs of the times, pointing onward to the com- 



84 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASFvA. 

ing advancement in the future, "'Where there is a will there 
is a way," and the will and the way were both put into effec- 
tive practice in school matters in those early days. In view 
of these facts official records of the amount of money paid, 
either by the state or county for school purposes, furnish but 
a very small amount of information of the true condition 
along this important line of western civilization. The first 
appropriations were not fully supporting for the small num- 
ber of schools then in the county and the public funds could 
not increase in proportion to the increase in the number of 
schools. The developement in the school system in the 
county was so rapid that twenty-six organized schools were 
officially reported in 1870, while several others had been 
established and not officially organized sufficient to draw 
any support from the public school funds. 

As near as we have been able to learn, the first school 
in the county was, as previously stated, held at Camden in 
a frame school house in 1865 and was taught by Thomas 
Graham. It has been stated, however, that Miss Agnes 
Baily, (afterwards Mrs. Corneilus West) taught a term of 
school near West's Mills in 1863, but this was perhaps a pri- 
vate familv school as there is no definite knowldge of any 
public school organization at that early date. Again there 
is a question of doubt about the priority in the schools as 
Miss Englehaupt has the record of having taught the West 
Mills school in the winter of 1865-66, this leaving but one 
chance for the Camden school to be recorded first — that it 
may have been a summer term. In those times a school 
term was supposed to be three months. 

In 1866 the little settlement just north of where Seward is 
located, consisting of thirteen families had mutually deter- 
mined that they needed a school and a meeting was called 
late in the summer to make necessary provisions for its es- 
tablishment, and as W. W. Cox was one of the principal 



HISTORY OF SF.VVARD COUNTY, NERKASIvA, 85 

charactures in this enterprise we will let him tell the story of 
that pioneer sehool meeting:,' and its results. "We met on 
the prairie near Mrs. Spears' ])resent home. We had no 
school officers, no school fund, no money and no credit. 
We voted no bonds, but we voted a school house. We tax- 
ed ourselves each four round logs to be delivered on the 
ground. Lewis Moffit taxed himself one acre of ground, . 
worth one dollar and a quarter, and we taxed ourselves with 
the necessary labor to construct the edifice. We searched 
our primises to find a few 8xjo window glass and a few 
rough boards to construct a door and a few benches. We 
made wooden hinges to hang the door. We used the virgin 
prairie sod for a floor. We cut willows along the river to 
cover the structure, then we plowed sod with which to shingle 
it, and soon rejoiced that we had a f)lace to send our child- 
ren to school, and that we had a meeting house, a court 
house and an election booth all our own and not a cent in 
debt." It is understood that this was Seward's first school 
house and \\\ W. Cox was the first teacher. 

Another small school house was built ui)on the present 
school grounds at Seward in 1870 and H. M. Coleman was 
the first teacher. The city's first high school building was 
an artistic brick structure built in 1874, 

The first term of school in Milford was taught in a small 
school house by Geo. B. France in the earliest days of the 
village's settlement. With the rapid increase of inhabitants 
the school soon outgrew its house and one of the church 
buildings was used for school purposes, and the school was 
advanced to two grades, Mr. France being the principal and 
Miss Courtright his assistant. At this time Milford had the 
largest school attendance of any school in the county. 

A log school house was built at Oak Groves in 1867 and 
the first term was taught in it by Miss Sarah A. Scott in the 
same year. A sod school house was built on the south-east 



86 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

corner of section 32 in B precinct in the fall of 1869. It was 
the first school house in the ]->recinct and was built upon the 
donation system, each resident of the locality donatini^ his 
share of the labor in breaking, hauling and laying the sod. 
And the door, windows and covering for the building were 
picked u[) wherever they could be found in the neighborhood 
and it required a general search of premises to find them. 
Seats and desks were furnished by the patrons of the school 
as their needs required. F. M. Timblin taught the first term 
of this school and his salary was raised by subscription. 

The hrst term of school in 1"^ precinct was taught in 
a cabin in 1868, but a school house was soon after built 
which became known as "the Slonecker school house." 

The first school house in H precmct was built m 1869 
on section 28 and Thomas Cowen was the first teacher. A 
second sod school house was built in this precinct in district 
No. 32 in 1872 and Miss Kate Miller taught its first term of 
school. A school house known as the "Hi Brisbin sod 
school house," was built in N |)recinct in 1870. The first 
term of school in this }>recinct was taught by Mrs. P. J. 
Goodrich. A sod school house was built in E precinct in 
1870 and Miss Clara Derby taught the first term in it. 

A sod school house was built in the John W. McCaulley 
district, one mile south-west of the j^resent location of 
Beaver Crossing in M precinct in 1870. Several terms of 
school were taught in this house and it was also used for a 
justice's court house and town hall. We were in attendance 
at one legal trial there in 1871 which was held at night, com- 
mencing in the evening and continuing till about one o'clock 
the next morning. Justice J. W. McCaulley presided. D. 
C. McKillip was the prosecuting attorney and Wm. Wilson 
conducted the defense. Hot shot was exchanged by those 
two pioneer attorneys so incessantly that all thoughts of 
the fleeting time were laid awav in the back-ground and the 



HISTORY OF SF.WARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 87 

session of that court became as interesting as an old time 
camp meeting. 

A sod school house was built in the village of Beaver 
Crossing in the fall of 1S71 which served for school, church, 
lodge room, elections, jtolitical caucuses and all j)ublic meet- 
ings until the comjiletion of the frame school house in 1874. 
The district of Beaver Crossing raised the necessary funds 
to build this new house by a unanimous vote of bonds. The 
building was completed readv for the seats and desks just 
before the 4th of July and T. H. Tisdale being the school 
director and manager of the construction of the edifice, gave 
an Independance Day ball in the new school house to raise 
money to buy a school bell. The dance was a success and 
the bell which was bought with the proceeds has rang over 
forty years for school and is still serving that purpose. For 
several years following the placing of this bell, as the first of 
its kind in Seward county, it rang for church as well as for 
school in as clear tones as if it had beeu ])urchased from the 
funds of church donations. It is a line bell and should last 
until the end of time. 

A sod school house was built on the south-east corner of 
the south-west quarter of section twenty-two, on Norman 
Casler s homestead in L |)recinct, known as the "T. J. Fos- 
ter school house," in 1871. It was used for school, elections, 
political caucuses, church and other public meetings for a 
number of years when it was replaced by a frame which was 
built on Minyard Foster's homestead half a mile farther east. 
A second sod school house was built in the north part of L 
precinct in 1S72 which was used for two or three years when 
it was re{)laced by a frame. , This house served but a short 
tune when it was destro3'ed by a prairie tire. The school 
was then returned to a sod house where it was taught until 
the completion of the second frame. 

A sod i;chool house was built in K precinct in 1S71, and 



8S HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

was known as "Mound Prairie school house." It was used 
for school, town hall, church, elections and other public 
meetings until as late as i88j. 

Upon the opening of the Beaver Crossing school the Mc- 
Caulley school was consolidated with it and the old sod 
school house in that district went to decay. 

This sums uj) the earliest of the {)ioneer schools which 
were mere outlines of the system which followed in due time. 
School districts were formed in all precincts in rapid success- 
ion and houses of pioneer architecture were constructed 
for their accomodation. They were of sod, logs aud dug- 
outs, all of which have disappeared from view. 

While the foregoing list of the pioneer schools of Seward 
county is incomplete it is perhaps sufficient to display the 
dominant spirit of those early settlers in the time of their 
difficult trials in making homes. The number of school 
houses in the county in 1870 has been unofficially estimated 
at twenty. Six reported as frame, four logs, seven sod and 
three dugouts. The number of school children in the begin- 
ning of 1870 has been reported at 782, and in April 1871 
there had been an increase of 465 making a total of 1,247 
children of school age in the county. 




^ ;S"rUtar6 (Lnnitli' (Ihrasltitti^ :S"rriir. 




i'ialhiui^ in thr -IJirntr ^lark ni itrnltfr (Lrnssiitiv Clhis pnuii is 
;S'up}jlirii Utith Wnti^r ihnnu n JFhiUuu^ Wrll. 



CHAPTER XV. 



Ordinary Customs, Hahits, Dress and Foods of The Pioneer Citizens of 
Sev\ard County, Nebraska. 



It seems difficult t(3 ])icture in words the customs and 
general characterstics of the early settlers in the west. A 
Wagoner or a Mozart might picture themes in song and 
classic music with greater vividness. It is a well established 
and understood fact that settlers upon any portion of the 
western plains were all traveling towards the one and same 
objective point in the same sphere and were therefore united 
in interests as brothers, well as neighbors, in the present 
and future enjoyment and wellfare of each other. And with 
very few exceptions the customs and habits became estab- 
lished along certain lines almost in advance of settlement. 
All being poor with limited comforts and no luxuries a social 
sameness prevaled which might be thought providential in 
transforming pioneer lonelyness to universal contentment. 
As might be supposed there were a few selfish exceptions to 
this, but so few that their j)resence or absence was scarcelv 
taken into consideration in that onward rush with mingled 
good will and cheerfulness which made life worth living upon 
the wild frontier. 

THE FRONTIER HOMES. 

Our abodes consisted, in general, of a parlor, sitting 
room, dining room, bed room, kitchen and pantry all in one. 
And this was also used for a smoking room and it was one 
of the greatest tokens of peace and friendship, when enter- 
ing a neighbor's mansion, to load a cob pipe out of the said 
neighbor's tobacco box and have a social smoke. There 



90 HISTORY OF SF.WARD COUNTY, NFBF-IASKA. 

was nothiiiL,' oflensive about tobacco smoke in those clays. 
Everybodv was accustomed to it, and its perfume assisted 
in drivin|L;' away dull care. 

THE FASHIONABLE PIONEER ATTIRE. 

The hig;h })rices est;d)lished during the war of the rebell- 
ion upon all kinds of dry .goods, hats, caps, boots and shoes 
were still dominant during the pioneer ])eriod in Seward 
county, and of course the pioneers did not dress in silks, 
satins and fine linens, nor in broadcloth or fine cashmeres, 
but they managed to replenish their wardrobe occasionally 
in a verv satisfactory manner. Calico was Yery rich m ap- 
y^earance as well as price, was a fashionable fabric and when 
made up in the pioneer style of the day, was Yery attractiYe. 
In fact the ladies gowns of calico were beautiful in those 
days. The calico dress |)atrens were }>rinted with border 
trimming along the selvage on one side of the cloth which 
matched about like border on wallpaper. And tfie girls 
made pretty dresses of this material. Balmoral stockings 
and calfskin shoes were popular additions to the ladies attire 
while gentlemen felt fortunate to have a jeans suit, with blue 
oYcralls, cotton socks, wool hat and a |)air of cowhide boots. 
Our better half made us one pair of pants from a white bed 
blanket and colored them with sumach bobs. The blanket 
was brought from the east when we came to Nebraska and 
cost six dollars, so 've had a pair of six dollar pants and they 
proYcd to be worth it. With these conditions prominent 
among the people the fact was well established that "dress 
does not make a man nor a woman." 

FOODS OF THE EARLY PIONEERS. 

There can be no reason to complain about Yariation in 
the daily bill of fare — it was Yarid enough — a feast being 
as a rule followed by a famine. Game was plentiful and with 
expert hunters there was meat in j^lenty. But during the 
earliest years breadstuii wasthe most difficult to obtain. in 



HISTORY OF SE\VARI5 COUNTY, NKMRASKA. 91 

those ckiws settlers were forced to face all nianner ot disadvan- 
tajjjes to i<et their i^rain tt) a mill to be i^ruuiid into meal or 
fl;)iir, it re(|uiring in many cases from one to two or more 
weeks to make the round trip to mill and back, many times 
encountering' all kinds of rouj^h weather and bad roads. But 
during, the earlv seventies with an abundance of mill facilties 
nine thenths of the settlers were too poor to atiord the luxury 
of wheat tiour, corn meal being the standard bread product. 
Coffee, tea and sugar were substituted by the use of browned 
wheat, sage and sorgum molasses. Sometimes a neighbor- 
ing family would make a day's visit with another expecting 
to get white wheat short cake and be treated to johnney cake. 
Gravies and j^otatoe sou{)es were substitutes a greater part 
of each vear for butter. And it is not to be tliought strange 
that the butter production during the winter seasons was very 
scanty in view of the (juality of the teed the milk cows got. 
It certainly was not of the kind to produce good, rich milk. 
Prairie hay was the food for cattle and horses and while it 
was excellent for the latter it was poor stuff for milk cows. 
But with all the deprivations of l^oth food and clothing, 
pioneer settlers got enough to eat such as it was and did not 
get dyspepsia by eating too much of it. And they had 
sufiicient clothing to keep them warm and enough to feel 
that all were dressed as well as their neighbors. When we 
wanted to go to a dance or other entertainment we were not 
ashamed to go with "our girl with a calico dress, ' nor to go 
dressed in jeans or blue overalls. 

There were no automobiles in those days, and settlers 
were considered a little high-toned who had even a spring 
seat lo their farm wai/on t(j ride on. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Pioneer Horses, Mules and \\ ork Cattle. — Grasshoppers. 



Man can talk and write of the hardships and trials of the 
first settlers upon the wild prairies of the west, but the trials, 
hardshi|)s and never ending toils of the unrewarded dumb 
beasts passes unremmembered into unwritten history. But 
tile fact that their share of the burdens and deprivations 
were fullv as great as those of their human companions, if 
not greater, cannot be denied and should not be forgotten. 
While the latter looked forward to a future reward the poor 
domestic animals were scantly rewarded with suiiicient food 
to maintain strength to perform the tasks required of them. 
Food for work animals was, to a great extent, food for men 
and in times of scarcity of supplies the dumb pioneers' pri- 
vations were augmented by the a])propriating of the food by 
their more favored and intelligent associates. And many 
times they performed their labor without food excepting such 
as they could pick upon the yjrairie. We have seen animals 
engaged in the heavy task of breaking prairie with no other 
food than that which nature had produced in a short growth 
of prairie grass, and we have seen those starved bodies grow 
so thin in a short time that they would scarcely make 
shadows in the sunlight. And after the work animals had 
completed the seasons heavy burdens they stood during the 
the cold and stormy season in pole pens, surrounded and 
covered with straw, the water leaking down upon their un- 
l^rotected backs while they rested their weary limbs in mud 
and water every time it- rained. And many times those pole 
pens were unprovided witli dours to shut out the winter 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 93 

blasts, the faithful, but helpless animals standini,^ and shiv- 
ering with cold from night till morning and morning till 
night. 

Flesh and blood could have done no more for the cc^m- 
fort, welfare and future prosperity of the homesteaders than 
was done bv the pioneer "horses, mules- and work cattle." 
And fiesh and blood could not have made greater, and more 
unselfish sacrifices to animate the most discouraging period 
of pioneer life and bring the county of Seward as well as the 
state of Nebraska to its present unparlelled prosperity than 
was made by those domestic animals. Many of those fath- 
ful friends to humanity passed frt^m time to eternity without 
receiving a reward from their owners of kind treatment or 
even kind words and the time may come when manv will be 
required to answer the cjueston "what hast thou done for 
me?" • 

Among our kindest friends of pioneer davs, long since 
passed to rest, we hold in memory a pair of obedient horses, 
Jim and Charley. A glance back into the dim past reveals 
to us the shining coats, curling mains, elevated heads and 
kindly eyes of Jim and Charley. And again we see them in 
many difficult performances of duty, straining every nerve 
and muscle to accomplish the purpose required of them and 
we again look back in vain to see the reward we gave and 
sigh tor lost oppotunities. It was not only the labor of a 
fsithtul pair of horses or of one horse or other animal, but 
also their companionship that is to be remembered with 
gratitude. We well remember a dismal ride of eighteen 
miles from Sewad to our home north-west of Beaver Cross- 
ing when the night was so dark we could not see the horses 
with no companion but Jim and Charley, they |)erforming 
the duty of guide and conve^'ors. From the start upon that 
never to be forgotten trip* we gave u]:) all thoughts of guiding 
our comi)anions and wrapping the lines around the standard 



94 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

on the front endgate, gathered our garments around us as 
cioseh' as possible, sat down in the wind and rain and trust- 
ing in the intehigence and care of those horses, silently wait- 
ed until they came to a halt within ten feet of our door. 

(jeorge T. Angell, the great advocate of the rights of 
those who cannot speak tor themselves in a short article in 
his pa})er, "Our Dumb Animals," says: "Among the very 
best society in this world we count good horses, good dogs 
and good cats, and we are (juite sure that four-legged don- 
keys are much better society than two-legged ones." 
THE GRASSHOPPERS. 

Here is neither an animal, bird nor insect that Mr. deo. 
T. Angell could call "good society." They belong to that 
class of living things of which there are none good excepting 
the dead ones and there is no faithful service they could [)er- 
form for humanity but to turn over and die. While they 
are not birds they can iiy perhaps farther without eating 
than any other winged bird or insect. They will emigrate 
clear across the United States and into the frozen zones of 
the north with one meal stowed away in their stomachs. 
We had our first experience with the immigratory breed in 
Harrison county, low^a in 1869. For many weeks during 
the summer a glance 'vith the naked eye towards the sun on 
any and every clear day would disclose seeming millions of 
the winged pests fiymg towards the north-west. They did 
not travel in single tiers but in masses extending from about 
one hundred feet above the earth to an almost invisible dis- 
tance towards the sun. Where they all came from and were 
going to was a diliicult j^roblem to solve, but it is probable 
that they hatched in the southern sand banks along the 
southern coasts and immediatly commenced a iiight to death 
in the frozen north. Their mission seemed to be a contin- 
uous flight and there are but few instances recorded where 
they have halted 111 any civilized country and those halts 



HISTORY OF SFWAF^D COUNTY, NKBRASKA. 9.S 

ha\'c boriic iinniistcikeable CYiclence of haYing been f(n'ced bv 
hunger. In that year ot our hrst experience with the pests, 
along in August when the corn had about passed out of the 
roasting ear state and began to dent a few milhons of that 
great continuous army got hungry and concluded to take a 
meal out of the Iowa corn fields and thev came down in such 
great hosts that the earth seemed to be a living mass of 
creeping insects. Hard as the corn was thev eat a lot of it 
and chewed the weather beaten wood off from the siding 
on houses and barns and the boards on fences. The wells 
of Harrison county were the dug by hand kind and generally 
stood o})en and the hoppers fell into them in such immense 
numbers that thev were ruined tor some time. 

This same continuous stream of living hoppers was 
known to be frying over Seward county, Nebraska, every 
summer from 1869 to 1876, making their first descent upon 
the fields of Kansas and Nebraska in August 1874. There 
was scarcely a day in summer seasons during that |)eriod of 
seven years when those flying pests could not f)e seen in 
motion like a stream ot drifting snow bv looking towards the 
sun. Their 1874 raid upon this state and Kansas was un- 
doubtedly due to a general desire among them for something 
to eat. And whether they got as much as they wanted or 
not they were guests, feasting upon the drouth stricken fields 
of Seward county corn, ])otatoes, cabf)age, onions, tobacco 
and the decayed sides of log houses ol:)out two hours and 
having eaten up everything eatable they rose into the air 
in such numbers as to appear like f)lack clouds of smoke. 
Wheat, oats and other small grain was about all harvested 
and was too hard for the hoppers' teeth. The corn crop of 
Seward countv was almost a failure if the hoppers had not 
touched it, Init the short time it required for those grsshop- 
per to change the appearance of the fields of corn and make 
them resemble helds c3f fishinii rods furnished tiood grounds 



% HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

for chari^int; them with having destroyed the corn crop. 

Two years after this raid, a httle later in the season of 
1876 the second and hist visit of the frying breed of grasshop- 
pers was made to the drouth stricken corn fields of Seward 
county. But they found the fields which bore anv corn at all 
too hard tor their grinders and left without doing anv ma- 
terial damage. On this occasion they deposited a few of 
their eggs in the earth in different localities which hatched 
out the next spring, but the young ones followed their natural 
mclmation to fiy and left as soon as their wnigs grew without 
doing any damage. 

It has l)een said that "it is no worse to kill than to scare a 
person to death." The grasshoppers did not kill anybody, 
but they scared some people "nigh unto death." A few 
seemed to think that by the loss of a little sod corn and 
parched cornfields that would not have made ten bushels of 
corn to the acre worth ten cents a bushel, life had become so 
miserable it was not W(n"th living especiallv in a country sub- 
ject to grasshoppers. And many of them abandoned their 
homesteads in short order and fled out of range of the great 
scourge, carrying with them harrowing tales of the suffering 
calamity in Kansas and Nebraska. The story spread with 
rapidity and enlargements all over the United States and a 
portion of Euro[)e, sinking deep in the sympathetic hearts of 
the })eople and a well defined system of aid for the suiierers 
was shortly inaugurated. Old clothes, old shoes, salt meats, 
lard, beans, corn meal and everything immaginable was 
sent into Seward county to relieve the needs of the destitute. 

We had rented a farm in L precinct and moyed onto it 
in the tall of that first grasshop})er disaster and in a few days 
a neighbor called at our house, — it was his first call — and 
sur[)rised us by stating that he had entered our name at the 
aid headcjuarters in Seward as grassho})per sufferers for two 
tons ot coal, .-.oiuc lard and corn meal. We told hmi that 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 97 

we were doinij; all rii;ht without any aid — perha))s as 
well as we CYcr had since settling in Nebraska — that we 
would he very much jileased if he would withdraw the re- 
quest for us. He undoubtedly did so as we never heard an\^ 
more about it. This man was undoubtedh' a kind hearted 
neighbor, but he was unnecessarih^ alarmed the same as 
those who were scared out of the state. Undoubtedly he 
would have joined in the flight of nonsense if he had not had 
so much Nebraska products to carry — about a dozen head of 
cows and young cattle, a good team of horses, several hogs, 
his bins full of wheat and oats and was on the list for aid. 
Added to the wild rumors of the grasshopper calamity put 
afloat throughout the nation by such exagerating people the 
Nebraska state legislature placed another advertisement in 
support of it by appropriating fifty thousand dollars to aid 
in buying food and seed grain for the hopper sutierers. As 
to who, among the real sufierers, got any aid from the ap- 
propriation after the distributing and other "red taj^e" of- 
ficials got through with it is not definatly known. But the 
state got the benefit of a name for charity to its citizens if it 
did blight many of its brigter attainments and blessings. 

Of course the hoppers did a lot of damage, but the set- 
tlers had faced more difficult prepositions and prospects and 
Hved through it without any aid. Since the grasshopi.)er 
scare we have witnessed several almost entire failures of the 
corn crop and no aid has been ofiered or tJKHight of. It 
was a little unfortunate that a little hoj)|ier excitement was 
not mingled in with those failures to facilitate the tumbling 
in of a few car loads of aid. But the grasshoppers are dead. 

Some idea of the immense numbers of the livino- orass- 
hoppers may be gained from the hosts that dropped down 
upon the earth on the three occasions we have mentioned. 
They were not of a special gathering, but just the number 
composing the regular ranks that almost constantly win«^ed 



98 HISTORY OF ST.WAKD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

their wa\' across the country. And in support of our theory 
that in this riii;lit thev were cornmittin_sj; suicide, we submit 
the following facts: In the first place there was a vast and 
unlimited number of them continually going one direction, 
and no information had ever been received bv civilized peo- 
ple as to anv stof)ping place while their journey must end 
somewhere. Again their numbers were so great that had 
they stopped anywhere short of eternity to feed and live up- 
on the grain and vegetable producing area of the world the\' 
would have starved humanity and depopulated the earth. 
Those that did stop and teed upon gram fields and then rise 
and f\y awav were never heard of again. If the}' did not go 
into the ocean or frozen north they would have made a rec- 
ord somewhere. The last but not least reason to consider 
in the matter is that their breed has become extinct. The 
rear guard of that great flying army ])assed beyond view soon 
after their last visit to Seward county. To briefly state the 
fact, they are dead and if they did not kill themselves by in- 
dulging in their natural inclination to fly, it is diflicult to de- 
termine what did end their existance. God is the only 
power outside of their own that could have destroyed their 
lives and saved the human race, and it may be that he in 
his wisdom provided their self destroying nature. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Rail Road Bond Exciting Campaign of 1871, 



In attempting to yiresent the ruling features of the conten- 
tion among the jnoneer settlers of Seward county upon the 
greatest pubhc cjuestion that has ever confronted them— -the 
rail road bond issue^ — we are met with thoughts of a tripple 
headed monster in the mterests of which certain localities 
were arranged against others in a bitter strife. The B. & 
M. rail road company had taken one-half of the land in the 
county as compensation for the construction of a railway on 
a certain line passing through the center of the county and 
after receiving the grant made the road twelve miles south 
of the proposed route. After the com[)letion of the road 
and the opening up of farms throughout Seward county the 
B. & M. company made an etiort to again bleed the countv, 
coming before the people under an assumed name with a 
proposition to make a rail road through the county from Lin- 
coln to the west line of the count\' by way of Germantovvn 
and Seward under condition that the citizens establish a 
contract by vote guaranteeing the issuing of bonds by the 
county to the said rail road com})any to the amount of one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars; bonds to run twenty 
years and draw ten |)er cent interest per annum. To many 
of the settlers this had the appearance of being a premedi- 
tated scheme to take advantage of necessitv and rob the set- 
tlers in the time of their poverty. The greater number of 
them were at a loss to understand even how thev were ever 
going to be able to provide comfortable homes for them- 
selves. They were living in sod houses and dugouts upon 



100 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 



unimproved homesteads on which the proposed Ijonds were 
practiciallv a mort^jjage for a larsjje part of their then present 
value .wliile the interest would, to a ij;reat extent, (,)fiset 
the advance \n value from the im{)rovements. And while 
the southern precincts would receive no benefit from the rail- 
way thev were to be held for an e(|ual }>ortion of the indebt- 
edness with the northern precincts through which the line 
was to run. dhe rail road company in constructing its line 
of raiiwav through the southern |)ortion of its land grant in- 
stead of through the center ot it estal)lished unmistakable 
signs ot premeditating its scheme to force bonds from the 
northern settlements of the grant. Those who viewed the 
proposition from these pomts were aroused to indignation 
against the establishment of such a contract with such a dia- 
bolical partv, therefore a well outlined system of opposition 
to it was established. On the other hand, with a great 
manv, the anxietv to establish better transportation facilities 
was the ruling sentiment. The disadvantages were so great 
that they felt that it was time to sacrifice almost any amount 
of money and credit to bring about better conditions. And 
they did not onl\' think it was time to do so but seemed to 
think it was the only time and did not want to wait a min- 
ute for a better one. They viewed but one side aiul saw 
only the benefit on their part and gave the ur.just exactions 
of the proposition side no attention at all. With a greater 
number of this class not only the transportation advantages 
were considered in favor of the l)onds, but the increase in 
value of their pro))erty and the business of their town through 
which the road was to run furnished a large share of their 
enthusiasm in favor of it. Had it not been for this estima- 
tion of the proposition tliere wnjuld have been no need for 
the general uprising that was inaugurated in other })arts of 
the county against it and the proposition would not got the 
support of one-tenth ot the votes of the county. with the 



HISTORY' OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 101 

forejo^oini:; lines o))posing each other the campaign o]>ened uj) 
in earnest vigor all over the county. Bond meetings resem- 
hhng the old 1861 war meetings were held l>y both sides and 
the most eloquent speakers of the countv were drawn into 
service in the controversy. W. VV. Cox, a strong ad\"ocate 
and supporter of the bond proposition, says in his historv of 
Seward county, that s[)eakers were brought in from other 
counties to help our ])eo[)le settle the matter, but he was 
mistaken unless there were some brought in by the rail road 
company, which Mr. Cox would not have mentioned. In 
fact we do not kno'v what counties the opposition side of the 
controversy could have went to to get more able speakers 
than our home tallent among whom were Hon. Benjamin 
Hunkins, Elder W. G. Keene, Hon. D. C. McKillip, W. j. 
Thompson and others. Bond meetmgs were held in sod 
school houses, sod dwelling houses and dugouts. We at- 
tended one bond meeting m the residence of Mr. Overman, 
father of Elder E. N. Overman who was then a little bov. 
The house was a sod cabin with a sod fioor and sod ro(^f, 
but it held upwards of seventy-five people. Bennie Hunkins 
and Elder Keene were the orators and held the attention of 
the crowded house till well towards the middle of the night. 
And although this meeting was held in a sod dwelling house 
enthusiasm could not have ran higher in any place. And if a 
lisetner had closed his eyes to the surrounding scenes and 
listened to the wit and eloquent wisdom that flowed from 
the tougue of Uncle Benjamin Hunkins he might have im- 
jnagined he was sitting in a metrap(^litan theater listening to 
an Ingersoll or a Ciarfield and would never thought of send- 
ing out of the county for speakers. 

The citizens of Camden and Milford took a hand in the 
light against the bonds and (xcn. J. H. Culver opened fire 
upon the proposition from the batteries of his paper, The Blue 
Vallev Record and when the final test came in February of 



102 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 



that year, the bond proposition was snowed under b}^ a ma- 
jority of seventy-seven votes. We cop}' the precinct vote as 
-en bv W. \V. Cox. 



Seward 


V . 


For 


Bonds 


232 


Against Bonds 


5 


North Blue 








136 







Lincoln Creek 








109 




9 


Oak Grove 








47 




60 


Milford 








5 




147 


Camden 








6 




1 38 


Walnut Creek 








10 




130 


Beaver Crossin 


g 






2 




135 


Total 


547 


624 



This shows the division of the county upon this question. 
Seward, North Blue and Lincoln Creek were directly on the 
proposed line of rail road while Oak Grove was only partially 
to be benefitted. Milford, Camden, Walnut Creek and Bea- 
ver Crossing were southern precincts that would not receive 
an\' benefit from it, not even so much as to hear the loco- 
motive whistle. 

Although this bond proposition was defeated at the poles 
by an honest casting of l)allots, trickery was on the alert as 
the last resort thought of to burden the tax payers and the 
Camden returns were filched and concealed from inspection 
when the canvas of the votes was made by the canvasing 
board. But this scheme failed of accomplishing its purpose. 
Indignation ran high and even the citizens of Seward who 
were so anxiousl}" interested in the county's accepting the 
bond proposition, held an indignation meeting and passed 
resolutions condemning shuch dishonoring of the elections of 
the count V. Injunction proceedings were commenced to 
restrain the county board from issuing the bonds, which were 
sustained by court and the bond question passed on to a 
second hearing. 

Again the rail road company which called itself the Mid- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 103 

land Pacilic, came forward with a proposition, a little more 
liberal, being twenty-live thousand dollars below the former 
requirement, and placing twenty-five thousand dollars of 
the burden directly upon the precincts to receive the greatest 
benefit, fixing the balance to be paid by the county at large 
as follows: seventy-live thousand upon the C(HTipletion of the 
road to Seward and twenty-hve thousand when it reached 
the west line of the county. Seward at that time was boom- 
ing witn a rapid increase of population and of course all new 
comers to the place meant that many votes for the bonds 
and during the intervening period between the elections its 
voting strength had increased eight3^-one votes. With this 
gain with perhaps a few changes on account of the new deal 
favoring the bond proposition the returns from the election, 
in October, 1872, showed that it had carried by a safe ma- 
jority. The work on the road was pushed with rapidity and 
it reached Seward the next season, exhausting the name of 
the "M. P. Rail Road," not leaving it strength enough to 
run one car over the road with that name on it. 

While this election established the road through Seward 
county it did not satisfy the B, & M. rail road company. In 
the first place the company had selected a desirable route 
passing up the Middle creek valley to Milford and from there 
up the North Blue to Seward, But with the unconcealed 
determination of the Milford ])eople to oppose any proposi- 
tion to incumber the county with debt the rail road company 
was forced to make its y)roposition to the sections where it 
was more sure of support therefor it had laid its track along 
an unsatisfactory route leaving the desired one open to com- 
petition. And taking into consideration the fact that the B. 
& M, had got its route established, its road-bed made and 
tracks laid from Lincoln to Seward there were but a very 
tew people in Seward county that were prepared to meet the 
proposition of the second B, & M. offspring under the name 



104 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

of "The A. cSc N. K. R" as coming only from a competing 
line. The company had waited five years for the jealousy 
between Seward and Milford to soften, and in 1878, a good 
vear for suckers, it made a proposition to establish a compet- 
ing road over the aforesaid B. & M's favorite route to Seward 
and from there north to the Butler county line for and in 
consideration of the issuing by the county of bonds to the 
amount of seventy-five thousand dollars to be paid in similar 
manner as the previous ones voted to the M. P. Milford 
and the Middle creek sections and many of the voters in the 
south part of the county had a change of heart being con- 
verted to the sup[^ort of "the competing line," and when the 
election came otl the bond proposition was endorsed by a 
large majority. As Seward was not so very favorable to 
this deal it is to be noted that it got its main support from 
those who had opposed the first proposition. The summing 
up of the result of Milford's firm stand against the rail road 
company's efiort to get its support to a bond proposition to 
open a road through that place thereby forcing the company 
to take the unsatisfactory route may be made with a short 
pencil and a scrap of paper. Had the company been assur- 
ed of support it would have asked for bonds to make the last 
road it did make in the county first on the desired route and 
been satisfied, the bond question would have been settled 
and the county fifty thousand dollars ahead. The company 
would only asked for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
in the first place to make the road where they wanted it 
whereas the county gave them two hundred thousand after 
many of its citizens had rode over the county and froze their 
noses and frosted their toes that cold 1871 winter to fight 
the bond issue. They might better remained at home by 
the fire. 

W. \V. Cox was a Seward resident, very much interested 
in the success of the first bond issue and in his history attrib- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 105 

utes the first proposition to the Midland l^acihc rail road com- 
pan3% never mentioning the true source from which it came, 
the B. & M. rail road company, but just read his lamenta- 
tion after the voting on the A. cS: N. "competing line." 

"As time rolled on, it developed that the people had been 
victimized, and that they had given seventy-five thousand 
dollars, or at least had agreed by their votes to give that 
amount to another B. & M. R. R. For a few months only 
did the A. & N. maintain controle of the road when it pass- 
ed in its checks and we awoke to find ourselves sold, and 
with two B. & M. roads on our hands." 

Mr. Cox failed to mention the full amount given to the 
said road and the several times the people had "found them- 
selves sold." The first one cost one-half the land in the 
county, the second, one hundred and twenty-five thous- 
and dollars with ten per cent interest for twenty \"ears and 
the third, seventy-five thousand dollars with ten per cent 
interest for twenty years, and they just got one road. Surely 
the noteriety of Seward county ought to be extensive with a 
rail road costing that much. But these events were atributes 
of pioneer da\^s when many homesick lads would have given 
their last dollar for the old, familiar home like sounds of the 
locomotive whistle. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Church Conditions of Pioneer Times in Seward County, 



We view any endeavor that we could make to delineate 
the [progression of any church or churches under the man^^ 
different opinions, dogmas and creeds as wholly unsatisfac- 
tory in its results and altogether out of place in this work. 
One of the most difficult i^roblems for the solution of the 
early settlers was that of church organization. The settle- 
ments were generally composed of those of dilierent denom- 
inations and unbelievers and to get them interested in church 
work only along their line of thought was like peforming a 
miracle. And with this predominating condition the forma- 
tion of churches dragged along through the pioneer period. 
Occasionally there would be a movement bordering u[)on 
church union and congregations would be formed, but gen- 
erally proved to be only temporary formations. One of this 
kind was formed at Beaver Crossing early in the seventies 
under the name of the Congregational Church, but lost its 
cognomen shortly after its formation, the members meeting 
and holding forth the banner of Christianity without a name. 
This congregation was partially claimed after a short time 
by the M. E. church, but during the entire time from its for- 
mation till along in the eighties there was no permanent 
church organization at Beaver Crossing. The Methodist 
E|)iscopal, Protestant Methodist and Congratiunal churches 
were generally foremost in pretentions of church organiza- 
tion, but there were but few church houses and the societies 
were not permanently located. A Congregational church 
was organized in Milford in 1869, and also an M. E. church 
about the same time, both of which became permanent or- 
ganizations. Rev. C. E. Phinney, a homesteader in L pre- 



fllSTORY OF SF.WARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 107 

cinct, organized a Protestant Methodist church in 1871 and 
through his efforts a sod church house was erected in 1872, 
six miles north of Beaver Crossing in L precinct. A Luth- 
eran church was organized in H precinct in the fall of 1872. 
Also a church of the same denomination was organized on 
Lincoln creek in 1873. An M. E. church and also a Bap- 
tist church was formed in Seward in the early seventies. A 
Catholic church congregation was formed in the northern 
part of the county in 1876 and also at Seward about the 
same time. An Adventist church was organized near where 
Ruby is located in 1875. An Amish Mennonite church con- 
gregation was formed west ot Milford in 1873. The Oak 
Groves M. E. church was organized in 1875. While this 
may not be all it is undoubtedly the greater number of pio- 
neer churches in Seward count}-. 

There were a few preachers of various denominations, 
a majority perhaps being of the M. E. faith, traveling and 
holding meetings in various localities throughout the county, 
but permanent congregations and church homes were limited 
until well along in the eighties. One peculiar character who 
undoubtedly is remembered by man\^ of the early settlers, at 
least in the south half of the county, was Rev. Goss.a young 
M. E. minister who made many trips to different localities in 
what might be termed a pioneer vehicle with a pioneer horse 
that traveled at a three mile an hour gait, advocating the 
cause of Methodism. He couldn't preach much, but held 
meetings in school houses, sod residences and dugouts, get- 
ting some exhorter to talk for him when he could, and in 
this way did the church a great deal of good. But there 
was a lack of able effort in the matter of church work during 
the first twelve years of Seward county history. There were 
members of all denominations among the early settlers and 
it is just as loyal to truth to say that all churches came with 
the advance guard of settlement as to say that any one of 



108 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

them did as there was no organized system followed by any 
of them. 

The foregoing brief mention of church work we believe 
represents the pioneer period. With the approach of more 
favorable conditions advancement commenced all along the 
entire line and was led by such grand christian motives that 
the cause has advanced in Seward county until it stands to- 
day upon the highest eminence of modern times. There 
are representations of the greater number of christian de- 
nominations of the uneverse in Seward county and the many 
magnificent and expensive structures erected in nearly every 
locality ot the county and dedicated to christian worship at 
the present time as compared with the perfod of seeming in- 
difference is indicative of the predominating power of christ- 
anity throughout the enlightened world. In viewing the ad- 
vancement that has been made in the cause of Christianity 
in Seward county since the beginning of the changed era a 
person is apt to forget the real conditions of pioneer times. 
And we are tempted to say that the cleansing power of 
christian endeavor is much more needed in these later days 
than it was in the time of the humble sod homes with the 
pure atmosphere untainted with the fumes of modern cor- 
ruption. In considering the wildness of the country in its 
earliest period of settlement many people class the early set- 
tlers in the wild grade with the country. But experience has 
taught us that this is erroneous and that the tamer the coun- 
try IS the wilder the people are. And we only have to point 
to Europe in this enlightened da}^ and age in the wild strug- 
gle of its people to see which set can make the largest dis- 
play of inhumanity and murder as proof. x\nd so wild have 
they become that they would murder any and every chron- 
icler of their deeds who dares to give a reduced account of 
their mad acts. The prairies of Seward county in pioneer 
days teemed with christian spirit, peace and kindness. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Past and Present Political Events and Conditions in Seward County. 



While this is not a political work and we do not care to 
hold up the banner of any political party upon its pages we 
will endeavor to present the political policies of the people 
of Seward county during the period that has passed into 
history in as clear and comprehensible a manner as possible 
in a spirit of unbiased candor. Of course there has been 
many things connected with and controled by politics that 
have made the world better, but there has been perhaps just 
as many influences over people and events controled by 
party politics that have made the world worse. While the 
record of the former may be freely dealt with and discussed, 
that of the latter will bear a well defined system of evasion 
as too undesirable and corrupt for thought or discussion. We 
are well aware that there is offensive matter of past politics 
which some people might consistently expect to see fully 
treated in this history, but we prefer to avoid contaminatmg 
its bright pages with accounts of low systematic, long con- 
tinued work of spite, abetted by the sway of party politics, 
trickery and falsehood. The political demagogue, or "dead 
beat" together with his supporters always drift to their level 
and become known as unworthy ot mention. 

In the consideration of pioneer politics we are constantly 
reminded of two amusing incidents which somewhat illustrate 
the general "free for all" partisan spirit of those early times. 

At a republican caucus in the sod school house on the 
Norman Casler homestead in the Foster district, L precinct, 
in 1873 there was a young gentleman present who had the 
appearance of a recent arrival from the Emerald Isle. He 
took a great interest in the proceedings, making suggestions, 



110 HIS I CRY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

motions and nominations. All went along smoothly until the 
business was finished and the caucus was about to adjourn 
when this young politician made a very firm objection. He 
said he was a democrat and had left his work to come there 
and he was going to see fair play. He had helped the re- 
publicans nominate a ticket and it was not fair for them to 
adjourn without nominating a democrat ticket. He display- 
ed so much earnestness and determination in his attitude 
and manner that it seemed as though the republicans were 
"in for a scrafi" with a lone democrat. But George Hurl- 
burt got u{) and made a little speech in which he told the 
young gentleman that as he was the onl\^ democrat there 
and nobody present knew enough other democrats to fill a 
ticket it would be impossible to nominate a democratic ticket 
at that time, advising him to announce a democrat caucus 
when the republicans would turn out and help them nominate 
a ticket. Pat made the announcement and the republicans 
were permitted to depart in peace. 

The old style of voting was the only way in those early 
times, each ])arty furnishing its own tickets printed upon 
slips of paper, the party name being displayed at the top 
and the candidates' names with the office for which each one 
was running prmted along down the slip. And it was deem- 
ed a part of safet\^ for the tickets to have one or more party 
members remain at the voting places to guard the party 
tickets from trickery and see that voters were supplied with 
the genuine and unadulterated article. At a presidential 
election, we believe it was in 1876, in the T. ]. Foster school 
house in L precinct, the writer was a member of the election 
board. There was a generally conspicuous figure at all 
elections present during a greater part of the day. He was 
an old comrade soldier and an uncompromising republican. 
Along toward the middle of the afternoon there was a lull m 
the voting and hangerson had about all left, seeming as if 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. Ill 

all had voted. We noticed this conspicuous character quite 
busy around the room but did not discover what he was do- 
ing and he finally disappeared. Just before time to close 
the poles three democrats came in to vote and there was not 
a democratic ticket in the house. They undertook to write 
their tickets, but it was slow work and they could not remem- 
ber the names of the candidates and finally gave it up and 
went away without voting. Those two occurences not only 
illustrate [tioneer conditions but also the difference in the old 
manner of nominating candidates and system of voting as 
compared to those of the present time. 

b^rom the time the county was organized the republican 
[>arty has been the dominant or majority party. However 
there has been a marked degree of independent voting in 
county and state elections, and in so far as the democratic 
partx' has placed able and good men in nomination for of- 
ficial positions it has been comparatively successful. This 
indicates a universal disregard among intelligent voters of 
partisan rule which, many times, effected an advanced con- 
dition along political lines. It is a matter worthy of note 
that the minority party seldom elected an incompetent man, 
not because it had no poor ones, but because upon the sterl- 
ing character and worth of the man alone stood his chance 
for election. And while the minority party seldom elected 
any but able and strong men it has been demonstrated in 
Seward county j)oIitics that the majority party has occas- 
ionally elected a very incompetent and weak one. As an 
illustration of these facts we refer to Hon, Thomas Graham, 
a democrat and a minority party man who was elected once 
county superintendent, five times county clerk, once state 
senator and once mayor of Sewrrd. His election was based 
upon the grand and honorable character of the man and not 
upon the strength of party politics. On the other hand we 
refer to Martin \V. Dimery who was once elected state sen- 



112 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

ator as a republican and majorit}' party man wholly upon 
the strength of party. And the contrast as displayed in a 
comparison of the two, the way they were elected, the 
number of times each was elected and the character of the 
two men solves the problem of the varying politics in Seward 
county. In St. Matthew xxv, 14-30 a parable of the talents 
is mentioned of which we are reminded in considering the 
elections of those two gentlemen. While Mr. Graham ad- 
ded to his talents until he had received eight elections upon 
the strength of his honorable character the other gentleman 
hurried his so deep in personalities that he could not have 
received one such election. The many honors bestowed up- 
on Hon. Thomas Graham by his fellow citizens were not 
results of party favoritism, political boss schemes nor spend- 
ing his entire official time of the hrst position he was honored 
with in working up an unbounded system of spite at some 
one who dared to think and refuse to support him. Had he 
did so his "talent" would have been buried too deep for res- 
erection. Thomas Gruham's life was spent from his earliest 
manhood in Seward county and he sleeps in death beneath 
its sod, not a demagogue politician, but one of God's grand, 
honorable and noble men. And there were many others of 
Seward count^^'s grand characters who were always found 
upon the side of right regardless of party or selfish noteriety. 

Although the republican party has been the dominant 
party the conditions as shown have made a fair division of 
official positions between the parties. Six democrats and 
six republicans have represented the nineteenth senatorial dis- 
trict, composed of Seward and Butler counties, in the state 
senate from 1876 to 19 16. 

Eight democrats, hve populists and twenty-seven repub- 
licans have represented Seward county in the state legisla- 
lature from 1865 to 1916. Prior to 1878 the county had but 
one representative and since that date it has had two. 



^ls|■ok^ of si.w ,\Ri.^ roiN 1 ^^ xi.ukaska. 113 

Five clemucrats and seven republicans have served as 
county judges for Seward county from 1865 to 19 16, 

Eleven republicans, two democrats and one populst have 
served as county treasurer fr(Mn 1865 to 1916. 

Eight democrats, four republicans and one greenbacker 
have served as county clerk from 1865 to 1916. 

Nine republicans, five democrats and one populist have 
served as sherift from 1865 to 19 16. 

Four democrats, seven republicans and one populist have 
served as count superintendent of public schools from 1867 
to 19 16. 

The ofihce of clerk of the district court was established in 
Seward county in March 1879 and was supplied by appoint- 
ment the first four years when George A. Merriam, a repub- 
lican, was elected to the position and by re-elections, served 
sixteen years. He was succeded by James Calder, a demo- 
crat, who was followed by Don C. Gwartney, a republican, 
who died in office, J. F. Gereke, a democrat being his suc- 
cessor, is still serving. 

The office of surveyor has been in the hands of the re- 
publicans all but about four years, and the oflice of coroner 
has been about equally divided betv/een the republicans and 
democrats. 

There has been four state officials elected from Seward 
county. Hon. E. C. Games was twice elected and served 
as lieutenant governor, Hon. T. L. Norval served two terms 
as supreme judge, Hon. Wm.Leese served two terms as at- 
torney general, and Hon. Wm. H. Smith is now serving as 
state auditor. The first three being republicans and the lat- 
ter a democrat. All of them were residents of Seward. 



CHAPTER XX. 



Criminalitv — The Nathan Clough, George L. Monroe and Other iVlurders 
Committed in Seward County. 



Of all the undesirable topics to engage the attention of 
either writer or reader, murder stands foremost. But with 
ah of its ghastly horrors it is an unavoidable subject for con- 
sideration in the past events of Seward county. However 
the earliest settlers of the county cannot be classed as crim- 
inals nor abetors of crime. The hrst settlers were a law 
abiding, industerous and honest class of homeseekers and it 
is a matter worthy of note that no terrible crime was placed 
upon the court records of Seward county for upwards of 
twenty years after its first settlement. And those convicted 
of crime later on were invariably more recent arrivals in the, 
community. 

MURDER OF NATHAN CLOUGH. 

In regard to this tragedy we are partially at a loss to 
give exact conditions, having nothing but our memory for a 
great portion of the details as a guide. There were two 
brothers, Nathan and Warren Clough residing in the city of 
Seward. Warren Clough was engaged in keeping a hotel 
and his brother, Nathan, was a horse breeder and made his 
home at his brother's hotel, keeping his horses in the hotel 
barn. The hotel keeper was a married man while his 
brother was single and it was reported that jealousy existed 
between tlie two brothers. One bright spring morning, m 
the month of May, 1874, Nathan Clough was found dead in 
the hotel barn, having been slain sometime during the night 
or morning with an axe. This created a great excitement 
and people's tongues ran wild. Everybody laid the blame 
for the bloody deed upon Warren Clough and like everything 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 115 

else that becomes matter of fact by continual wordy specu- 
lation the coroner's jury brought in a verdict charging War- 
ren Clough with the murder of his brother. The prejudice 
against the accused had been worked up to such a pitch in 
the city of Seward that a change of venue was granted and 
the trial took place in the neighboring city of York — not very 
greatly removed from the scenes of the crime nor the exciting 
prejudice it had created. And outside of this prejudice 
which seemed to be based upon opinion more than proof, there 
was none but circumstantial evidence against the man and 
the str(jngest of this evidence was reported to have consisted 
in the conduct and actions of the accused. But he was con- 
victed of murder in the first degree, was sentenced to be 
hung and all preparations were made for executing the sen- 
tence. On the evening before the execution was to take 
place Governor Garber commuted the sentence to life im- 
prisonment. After serving fifteen years of his sentenance he 
was pardoned by Governor Tha^^er. Whether Warren 
Clough was or was not guilty no one but himself knew, and 
if innocent no one but himself and the guilty one knew. Jack 
Trent, a notorious character who was afterwards convicted 
of burglary at Seward and sentenced to serve three vears 
in the penitentiary, died before his sentence had expired and 
was reported to have made a statement on his death bed 
that he killed Nathan Clough, but the confession received no 
attention or credit, although it was possibly true. 
MURDER OF GEORGE L. MONROE. 
Orlando J. Casler was a criminaloid. His father served 
in the New York state penitentiary for manslaughter having 
killed a man in a quarrel, with a fence stake. Before Orlan- 
do came to Nebraska he served a part of a sentence in the 
Wisconsin state penetentiary for stealing a team of horses, 
but was pardoned by the governor of that state before the 
expiration of his sentence. Having a brother, Norman Cas- 



l!6 msrOKV OF SI\S AKI) ( ()1;N TN .\r.Hk ASK A. 

ler, a homesteader residini; in -L- j)recinct, Seward count v, 
Nebraska, and a sister, Mrs. T. H. Tisdale, of Beaver Cross- 
ing, when he was released from prison in Wisconsm, in 1S74 
Orlando came with his family to this county. He made his 
home for a short time alternately with his brother and sister. 
Gilbert White, a young, unmarried man had homesteaded the 
east half of the north-west quarter of section 34, -L- precinct 
and had made a dugout on the claim and as Orlando Casler 
wanted a place to live White permi.te 1 him to move into his 
dugout. Shortly afterwards young White sold his home- 
stead to B.F.Salnave, but could not give any title other than 
relinquish his claim and Casler, hearing of the deal, slipped 
in ahead of Salnave and homesteaded the land. The writer 
owned the quarter adjoining the said eighty on the east and 
was intimately acquainted with Casler. He was a soldier in 
the 'var of the rebellion, had been severly wounded in the 
right rhoulder and was drawing a pension of fourteen dollars 
a month which togother with the rent from the improved 
land on the WHiite-Sahiave homestead provided him with a 
fair support as compared to other homesteaders, but the all 
prevailing mania for horses was still with him as it had been 
in Wisconsin. In the early part of July, 1878, a stranger, 
a comrade soldier by the name of George L. Monroe, of 
Missouri, came into the neighborhood driving a plug team 
of horses hitched to an old style, wide track wagon, the 
whole outfit perhaps not worth over a hundred dollars. He 
wanted to sell his team and unfortunately fell into the com- 
pany of Orlando J. Casler who took him in as an old army 
comrade. He remained at Casler's dugout two or three days 
and was seen by several of the neighbors. Finally Casler 
proposed to buy his comrade's team, but said they would be 
obliged to go to Seward to get themone\\ (This was taken 
from a statement made at the house of the writer by Mrs. 
Orlando J. Casler after the murder.) This proposition was 



HISTORY OF SF.VVARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 117 

accepted by Monroe and on the morning of July 7th the two 
men got up early and hitching up the team drove to Seward 
where Monroe was to receive the money for his outfit and . 
go on his wa\^ rejoicing and Casler was to take the team. 
But unfortunately Casler could not get the money in Seward 
therefore he induced his companion to return home with 
him. The next link in the chain of Casler's "cussedness" 
was to get Monroe to camp for the night in the timber on 
the North Blue river bottom, just outside the city limits of 
Seward on the road to Beaver Crossing. After they had got 
settled for the night some other parties came and camjied 
near to them which disturbed Casler and he again induced 
his companion and they moved farther up the river. This 
was the last act of George L. Monroe and the last time any- 
body except Orlando Casler saw him alive. In the morning 
Casler had some difficulty in catching the horses as they had 
got loose and while looking for them was met by parties on 
the street of the city with his clothing all wet. He stated that 
he had got his clothes wet while running after the horses 
through the wet grass. But he got the animals and hitched 
up and drove them home, telling everybody he saw that he 
had bought the team and that Mr. Monroe had gone on to 
California. Two or three days later some boys were fishing 
near the bridge below the two comrades' camping ground 
and saw the body of a man lodged in some drift wood. 
They went up to town and reported what they had seen and 
the officials went and got the body. The man had been 
shot in the heart, the ball having passed entirely through the 
body, and a terrible wound had been inflicted upon the side 
of the forehead, apparently by a blow with a revolver, the 
cock of it striking and cutting a frightful gash. T. J. Fos- 
ter, an L precinct citizen and neighbor, happened to be in 
Seward that day and saw the body which he recognized as 
that of the man who had been in company with Casler. 



118 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

About three o'clock the next morning we were awakened by 
a terrjffic pounding upon our dugout door and when we ask- 
ed who was there, were both surprised and somewhat fright- 
ened at the reply that it was the sheriff of Seward county. 
Well, we didn't believe him and told him so. We also told 
him that the shenfi of Seward county had no business com- 
ing around our house in such a way at that time of night. 
He said there had been a murder committed and we were 
only one of several persons he wanted to see before daylight. 
We told him there was no murderer in that part of the coun- 
try, and he said that he guessed there was. He said he 
only wanted to subpena us as a witness before a coroner's 
jury. We then opened the door and he came in and served 
his subpena and told us to be ready to go at daylight, that 
there were several teams going and we could ride with some 
one of them. We got a "rushed" breakfast just in time to 
climb into the wagon with Roland Reed and sons, Charley 
and Horatio. Our dugout at that time was about forty rods 
west of Casler's and the witnesses who had- been notified to 
go were requested to tarry a little until the sheriff and his 
deputy had got Casler started on the road so we waited a 
few minutes and saw Casler drive out towards Seward. The 
sheriff had schemed to keep Casler in ignorance as to what 
he was wanted in Seward tor and permitted him to drive his 
recently acquired team and take his wife with him. But the 
sherifi and deputy were very careful to ride in their buggy 
just behind and close up to Casler's team while the string of 
witnesses followed along in the rear. While Casler in the 
leading conveyance sat as if in deep meditation the en- 
tire journey to Seward, the attitude of the two men in the 
buggy displaying a feeling of reverence, and the escort of 
neighbors with solemn and blanched faces following as stat- 
ed we were constantly impressed with thoughts of a funeral. 
And such it seemed to amount to so far as Casler was con- 



HISTORY OF SF.WARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 119 

rerned. It was the last cortege of sorrowing neighors to 
follow him, and if not to his last resting place, it proved to 
he to the place of his just doom. On that trip his doubts 
and fears were, no doubt many, but he did not realize its real 
meaning until he arrived in Seward where he was immedi- 
ately arrested an placed in jail. 

It has been said that "murder will out," and if this one 
didn't "out" in every way it would be difficult to find one 
that did. It was a verv bungling job of crime. Casler had 
undoubtedly made an effort to sink the body in the river, but 
excitement had caused him to make practially a failure of 
it. The wet condition of his clothing in the morning points 
directly to this conclusion. It was evident that he had shot 
and killed Monroe with the man's own revolver, and shot 
him while sleeping in his wagon as there was a bullet hole in 
the bottom of the wagon box. He had Monroes revolver 
hid in his stable. He had also his victim's pocketbook and 
private papers hid in his bed. Monroe's satchel containing 
clothes and other things was found, hidden in a hedge fence 
at the side of the road leading to Beaver Crossing. In his 
effort to conceal his guilt Casler made the blunder of telling 
his wife all about it and permitting her to know even the 
hiding place of the stuff. When officers searched his home 
for evidence she told them where to find the pocketpook, 
papers and revolver. This lad}^ was a frequent visitor at our 
dugout and came there as soon as she returned home after 
her husband's arrest and her talk removed every doubt from 
our mind in regard to his guilt. She did not pretend to say 
that he was not guilty. In fact she did not make any effort 
to conceal his guilt. She said that he hid Monroe's things 
and that she told him when doing so: "Why Lant, They 
Will Find You Out!" 

While this crime was committed in July, 1878, Casler 
was not tried until in P'ebruary, 1S79. The case was a plain 



120 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

one, but the usual indispensable formalities together with the 
presentation of all the evidence in the matter which would 
aid the jurxMn coming to a just and impartial conclusion 
required several day's time. But with a very short deliber- 
ation the jury returned a verdict of guilt against Orlando J. 
Casler for the murder of (jeorge L. Monroe. He was sen- 
tenced by Judge Post, of York, before whom the trial was 
conducted, to be hung on the 20th day of May, 1879. 

On the morning of the day Casler was to be executed it 
seemed that everybody excepting the writer was on the road 
to Seward and there was an immense throng gathered in the 
city earl\' in the day. And the precautions the sheriff had 
taken to observe the law and exclude the public from witness- 
ing the revolting scene were, in the hands of that host of ex- 
cited citizens, many of whom were lawless, as frail as chaff 
before a tornado. He had erected an inclosure of boards 
around the gallows and outlined a limited space, placing an 
equiped corps of dupities as a guard, warning people not to 
pass the limited line. But just before the fateful hour ar- 
rived a general rush was made, upon the line of deputies and 
the board inclosure, which swept everything out of the wa^' 
of a complete and general view of the gallows and the pro- 
ceedings about to be enacted there. It was the general im- 
pression among the people that Orlando Casler deserved to 
be hung and the prevalent desire to know that it was done 
impressed many with an idea that seeing it done was the 
only wa\' of knowing it had been done. And this seemed 
to be the only way to satisfy the public demand f(^r the exe- 
cution of a bad and dangerous character. Had Sherili John 
Sulivan failed in the performance of the terrible duty set be- 
fore him, the mob would have performed it tor him. But he 
did not shrink from his dut}' and Orlando J. Casler paid the 
]>resd'nbed penalty for his crime at the appointed time in ac- 
cordance with the law so far as the mob had permitted hirn 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 121 

to do. (3f course a public execution was contrary to state 
statutes, but the sherifi had no other alternative. He had 
to strain the law to obey it and to prevent a greater violation 
of it by the mob than had already been enacted. 

The last words of Orlando J. Casler at the closing scenes 
of his life were reported immediatly after the execution by 
several of his nearest neighbors who witnessed the entire 
proceedings at the execution as follows: "Before God and 
man I am innocent." 

THE BATES-THOMAS TRAGEDY. 

In March 1880 a terrible tragedy occurred at a school 
house in B precinct near where the village of Bee is located. 
A protracted meeting was being held at the school house 
and there was a family by the name of Bates residing in the 
locality who were very much enthused with the spirit of the 
meeting and were taking a prominent part in the exercises. 
There were also some rough characters in the neighborhood 
by the name of Thomas who were harboring a grudge 
against the Bateses, and to satisfy their wrath they vented 
their spite upon the meetings. Being allaround toughs they 
had no difficulty in enlisting others of the same lawless spirit 
in making an effort to break up the meetings by a system of 
lawless disturbance. This kind of overbearing conduct was 
continued until patient forbearance upon the part of the 
church people ceased to be a virtue and violent threats were 
made as to what would be the result if the rowdies did not 
cease to disturbe the exercises. Preparations were made 
and one night the church people went to the meeting armed 
to defend their rights and the toughs went prepared for 
trouble which it seems they were looking for. An exchange 
of angry words was quickly followed by blows. Revolvers 
were brought into action by both sides resulting in the death 
of William Bates and the fatal wounding of Hillard Thomas. 



122 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

James Thomas received a wound in the hip, Isreal Bates 
was wounded in the thigh and Luther Bates received a se- 
vere wound in the head infiisted with a spade. What 
brought the row to a close without further bloodshed has not 
been fully determined, but it was probably on account of the 
disabling of the principal leaders in the affray. Certainly it 
brought about the desired purpose of the toughs and broke 
up the meeting. And it seems strange that such a shame- 
fully outrageous violation of law and order upon their part, 
resulting in the murder of a respected citizen, was permitted 
to go without punishment or even satisfactory investigation. 
We fail to understand that the law would hold those toughs 
guiltless of murder on the theory that the church people pre- 
pared to defend their rights. They were in their own home 
and should have been as free to defend it as a private citizen 
would be to defend his home and he would have a right to 
be prepared for that purpose with a dozen or more Catling 
guns if necessary. And if a citizen was killed in the defense 
of home with those Catling guns the party who committed 
the deed would be guilty of murder just the same as if he 
had killed that citizen while sleeping. There is scarcely 
room for a doubt that several of those meeting disturbers 
should have been forced to account for the willful murder of 
William Bates. 

THE SAMUEL BOWKER-GRANGER TRAGEDY. 

In the matter of the above named tragedy, which as 
near as our memory serves us, occured in the fall of i8(So, 
there were five persons involved. The Crangers consisted 
of father, a daughter and two sons, the fifth being Samuel 
Bowker, the whole terrible affair being the result of a loose 
tongue on the part of Bowker about the Cranger daughter 
and sister. • The daughter had recently been married and 
Bowker engaged in the use of disrespectful language about 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 123 

the 3'oung lady and her marriage in presence of her father 
who resented Bowker's insulting manner with a strong pro- 
test which brought on a quarrel resulting in Bowker, who 
prided himself on his pugilism, striking Mr. Granger and 
knocking him down. These parties resided near Milford 
and the two brothers, Milton and John Granger were in the 
mercantile business in East Miltord, now Grover. A few 
days after the assault upon their father Mr. Bowker was 
passing the sons' store and they came out and invited him 
to get out of his wagon. He immediately accepted the in- 
vitation and taking off his coat announced himself ready for 
the two brothers. With angry and violent words the light 
cbmmenced, Milton Granger soon drawing a revolver fired 
two shots at Bowker who knocked the revolver from his 
hand when John Granger drew a revolver, firing five times 
at Bowker. Two of these shots took effect, one of which 
struck near the shoulder and passing to the spine caused 
Mr. Bowker's death. The Granger brothers were indited 
for murder and on trial plead guilty of manslaughter which 
was accepted by the court. They were sentenced to serve 
ten years in the penitentiay which term they served. 

Had the Granger brothers went into the fight without the 
revolvers and accidently got hold of a weapon and killed 
their antagonist their plea would have been more plausible 
and they would perhaps received a lighter sentence. But 
the fact that each was armed with death dealing weapons 
was evidence of premeditated intent to kill Mr. Bowker. 
His violent conduct following up and defending a cowardly 
vocal assault upon a young lady's name reaped its reward 
and had much to do with mitigating the sentence and public 
opinion of the Granger brothers. 

MURDER OF MRS. PATRICK. 

A resident of B precinct by the name of Patrick, whose 



124 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

given name we are at this time unable to state, and family 
seemed to be very rough and lawless. They frequently en- 
gaged in family strife and one day in the early part of April, 
1882, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick and two sons were returning to 
their home from Seward when a family quarrel was com- 
menced between the boys and their father. This seemed to 
go from bad to worse until it resulted in a revolver battle. 
In trying to stand between the combatants, Mrs. Patrick, 
the wife of one and mother ot the others, was killed by a 
shot from her husband's revolver. He was indited for mur- 
der, was tried, found guilty and given a sentence of life im- 
prisonment in the penitentiary. After serving several years 
of his sentence he was pardoned by the governor. 

MURDER OF THE LEAVITT CHILDREN, 

As W. W. Cox was a member of the grand jury which 
investigated this, the most brutish of all Seward county mur- 
ders, we will quote his account of it. It occured in 1889. 

"In the southern part of D precinct there lived a family 
by the name of Leavitt. They were old residents, but un- 
fortunately they were not popular with their neighbors. 
There had been much trouble about their stock and various 
matters. Mr. Leavitt was a man in general bad repute and 
it made against him in this terrible trying hour. As appear- 
ed in the evidence before the grand jury, of which the au- 
thor was a member, Mr. and Mrs. Leavitt had an errand 
one evenmg at Gresham, about five or six miles distant, 
leaving their two young daughters in charge of the house. 
Upon their return late in the evening, they found the two 
little girls, one about eleven and the other thirteen years old 
lying in the yard with their throats cut. Suspicions were 
arroused against different parties. A grand jury was speed- 
ly summond. The jury was in session ten days and every 
avenue was searched diligently. It developed that there 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 125 

was a deadly enmity existing against Leavitts in the com- 
munity and some were ready to believe that the old couple 
had murdered their own children; but there was no evidence 
to justify such a suspicion only that their general reputation 
as citizens was not of a high order. There was no evidence 
of any possible motive to commit such a deed. Some of the 
neighbors seemed very little concerned in the matter, accord- 
ing to their own testimony. We will give a few questions 
and their answers. 

Ques. "Mr. where were you when you heard of 

the murder?" 

Ans. "x\ttending to my own business." 

Ques. "How did it affect you?" 

Ans. "I didn't care, it was none of my business." 

Ques. "Did you go down there?" 

Ans. "No." 

Ques. "How far do you live from the Leavitts?" 

Ans. "About three-quarters of a mile." 

Ques. "Why did you not go down and see the murder- 
ed children?" 

Ans. "I did not care, and was busy at my work." 

"This is the way the evidence ran with one neighbor. and 
yet scarcely no suspicion was placed at his door, only a sus- 
picion that he was brutal. 

"On an adjoining farm was a man by the name of Gerd 
Stienblack who had had much trouble with Leavitt about 
unruly stock, and there was much bad blood existing. When 
he was told of the murder he did not care enough to go and 
see, although he lived less than half a mile distant. How- 
ever he seemed agitated, but gave vent to the idea that it 
was no concern ot his. Stienblack was summoned before 
the jurv and when closely and sharply cross questioned he 
became much excited and as the old saying is, "He danced 
like a chicken on a hot griddle." He was on the witness 



126 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

stand a half day and became so frightened or maddened that 
he went home and hanged himself in his own barn. 

"There was a wide spread suspicion in the jury room 
and among the people that he knew all about the murder, but 
the jury was not able to agree or to fix the awful crime at 
the door of anv person, and with man\' it remains a mystery 
to this da\\ But now after the long years have passed, we 
are free to say that we have never had occasion to change 
our mind that at least one of the guilty parties met his God 
before that jury closed its session. Below we give a letter 
left by Mr. Stienblack, in German, but translated by Rev. 
Father Gruber. The letter is without date and reads as 
follows: 

"I do not want to have spread my name town. There- 
fore, greeting once more. I am not guilt}^ of the deed. This 
m\^ wife and daughter know as well as I, for I dared to tell 
the truth. But it is too late now. And so has the deed 
been attributed also to me, of which nevertheless I an quite 
innocent. My beloved wife and daughter, God will give 
that we see each other in eternity again. Gerd Stienblack." 

This is Mr. Cox's story, of that murder, as a juror who 
investigated the crime. In view of what did develope before 
that grand jury, according to his statement, the truth of 
which there is no room for a doubt, the Leavitt family, what- 
ever they may have been, good or bad. had some terrible 
bad and dangerous neighbors, leaving out of consideration 
the murder of the little girls. That the murder of those two 
little girls without a possible motive, was the act of a mad 
or insane person seems apparant. And the whole conduct 
of Gerd Stienblack, leading up to and including his almost 
incomprehensive letter and his self destruction point him out 
distinctly as a mad-man. Whether he was responsible or 
not, if he committed the murder, is a matter of grave doubt. 
Again his insanity may have resulted from excitement and 



HISTORY OF SFAVARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 127 

fear that he was in danger of having to account for the crime. 
But that he was insane there is no room for doubt. No 
sane person ever committed suicide. 

MURDER AND SUICIDE AT SEWARD. 

The citizens of the city of Seward, and m fact of the 
whole county of Seward, were horror-stricken on the even- 
ing of June 25th, 1902, by the report that the murder of one 
and the suicide of another of the city's well known business 
men had been committed that evening. A. D. Lange shot 
and killed John Hand on the street and after walking one 
block to his home fired one shot into his own body and one 
shot into his head. All of the physicians in the city were 
soon in attendance, but he was out of the reach of human 
assistance and passed away in a short time. 

The cause of this terrible tragedy is the same one that 
has prompted more such shocking homicides than any other 
one thing in the world — a fickle wife and a foolish man. 
John Hand had been pa\^ing illegitimate attention to Lange's 
wife for over two \'ears which had brought about a muscular 
encounter between the two men about a 3^ear previous to the 
final end, and yet Hand foolishly presisted in his attentions 
to the lady. And the result, with all of its heartrending 
features, was not surprising to many of Seward's citizens 
who w^ere well aware of the conditions as they had existed for 
a long time. 

The men were both in business in Seward, Lange being 
a dealer in groceries wliich business Hand had just previous- 
ly sold out of to engage in the sale of pumps and windmills. 
Hand left a wife and several children, some of them grown. 

JACOB VOTAVA MURDER. 

Jacob Votava was a Bohemain who resided alone on a 
farm a short distance east of Milford. On Sunday afternoon. 



128 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

October 29th, 1906, one of the workmen on the B. & M. 
rail road ii;rade through that section, discovered Mr. Votava 
lying on his bed in his house and after a time became satis- 
fied that the man was dead. He gave the alarm and an in- 
vestigation showed that he had been dead several days. A 
coroner's jury was summoned and rendered a verdict that 
he had been murdered by shooting. Indications pointed to 
the fact that two persons had occupied the house the night 
of the murder, but no clue was learned as to who committed 
the crime. Votava was supposed to have some valuables 
and just before his murder had sold some hogs and suspicion 
was prevalent that he was murdered for his monfey. Every- 
thing of value that could be carried away had been taken 
from the place. Mr. Votava was about forty years old and 
had no relatives in Seward county. 

THE BERT PICKREL TRAGEDY. 

A shocking and terrible tragedy occured in the city of 
Seward, January 9th, 191 3, when a young wife was shot to 
death by a jealous husband of only five weeks. On an ac- 
quaintance of only two weeks Bert Pickrel married a young 
girl, became jealous on account of her conduct with other 
men, and procuring a loaded shotgun entered her sitting 
room, and with the pretense that he was going hunting step- 
ped behind the young woman and discharged the contents 
of the gun in the back of her head, literally tearing it to 
pieces. This case involves love, marriage, jealousy and 
murder in the brief period of seven weeks. This lover, jeal- 
ous husband and murderer possibly was mentally unbalan- 
ced which would form the only basis for even a partial excuse 
for his horrible crime. He was placed in jail where he waited 
until the convening of the district court when he plead guilty 
of murder in the second degree and was sentenced to serve 
twenty-tive years in the state penitentiary. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



The Precincts — Their Location by Government Survey — Range and Town 
Numbers. Precinct Representation on County Board — Its Changes. 



In the original plan of township division of Seward coun- 
ty there was no such thing as name or letter for the pre- 
cincts. The government survey discribed or located each 
township by town number and range east of the principal 
maridian and homesteads were entered by section number, 
town number and range. While this was the established 
system for the government to divide up the wild land belong- 
ing to it and was the most accurate way of keeping track of 
that vast real estate, it was unhandy for general business 
among the residents of the difierent townships therefore a 
revision was shortly made and the sixteen townships estab- 
lished as precincts to be known by letter alter the first six- 
teen letters of the alphabet, running from A to P. In the 
location of the townships by town number and range there 
are but fjur town numbers and four range numbers in 
Seward county, the ranges being numbered one, two, three 
and four, east of the principal maridian, range one being 
the county's western tier of townships. They run north and 
south and include four towns. The town numbers run east 
and west, each town number representing four townships or 
the same town number in each different range. The towns 
are numbered nine, ten, eleven and twelve, from the south. 
We have drawn a diagram of the county b}' precincts, giving 
the location of each and showing the town number, rano-e 
and precinct letter. By leaving out the letter the location 
of the township by the government surve}' will be easily un- 
derstood. However for the benefit of school pupils who 
might desire a clear understandmg of the system adopted 



150 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 



b}' the United States Government to designate sixteen dif- 
ferent towns in a county by the use of only four town num- 
bers and four ranges we refer them to the fact that there is 
but one of the same town number in each range. For in- 
stance while there are four townships designated as town 
twelve, which are the north tier of townships, there is only 
one town twelve in each of the four ranges. 





^^' 








1— -1 




>d 


Town I 2 


3 


Town 1 2 


3 


Town 1 2 


3 


Town 12 


3 




c;c 




JQ 




C/Q 




C/Q 




o 




0) 




Ci 




rt) 


D Prec't 




C Prec't 


Ki 


B Prec't 


o-> 


A Prec't 


-f^ 




"X 




^ 




X 




p 


Town 1 1 


^ 


Town 1 1 


y 


Town 1 1 


p 


Town 1 1 


3 




—t 








3 




UQ 




C/Q 




C/Q 




7Q 




a> 


E Prec't 




F Prec't 


Ki 


G Prec't 


Oj 


H Prec't 


4^ 




<^ 




^ 




f^ 




<^ 


Town lo 


3 


Town lo 


3 


Town lo 


P 


Town ID 


P 
3 




C/Q 




C/Q 




C/Q 




7Q 


L Prec't 




K Prec't 


K) 


J Prec't 


OJ 


I Prec't 

; ^■... 




-^ 




*X/ 




X 




l^' 


Town 9 


3 


Town 9 


3 


Town 9 


3 


Town 9 


p 
3 




f/Q 




C/Q 




C/Q 




C/Q 




O) 




n 




O) 




rD 


M Prec't 




N Prec't 


M 


O Prec't 


Ck> 


P Prec't 


4^ 



Each precinct contains thirty-six sections, being six 
miles square, the sixteen precincts amounting to five hund- 
red and seventy-six sections or that number of square miles. 
One section contains six hundred and forty acres of land 
therefore the county is composed of 368,640 acres. In the 
original plan of the government to divide th^se sections into 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 



131 



homesteads of a quarter section each, which was supposed to 
be a farm, the area of Seward county would have made one 
thousand, eight hundred and four farms. But that plan did 
not succeed after the rail road grant of every other section 
was made. And this deal cut the size of homesteads down 
one-half and in the final sale of the rail road's land the ob- 
ject aimed at by the government in the homestead act, to 
make an even division of the land among actual settlers, 
proved to be a failure. Not only did speculators take ad- 
vantage of an opportunity to get a hold of tracts of land, but 
homesteaders who had got a start, purchased rail road land 
to more than twice the amount of the original homesteds. 
This enlargement of farms reduced the number of farms and 
also the number of settlers. 

Section one is the north-east section in each precinct 
and the section numbers run east and west as shown in the 
following illustration. 



lO 



i8 ; 17 16 15 



II : ■ 12 



14 



13 



19 i 20 21 22 23 24 



30 ^ ^ 29 



27 



26 



25 



31 h 32 33 34 35 ■ 36 



This little diagram illustrates the form and dimension of 
one precmct in Seward county. It is intended to represent 



132 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

any one of the precincts designated by town and range 'num- 
ber or letter. But the interests of the city of Seward, which 
is in G precinct, conflicted with the interests of the rural 
or farming sections and made it necessary to establish an 
independent and separate precinct of the city, which trans- 
action occurred about 1886. However the original area of 
G precinct was not changed. In the rough and hilly pre- 
cmcts where the survey of the sections was made up and 
down hills the level area is shorter than in the more even 
surfaced precincts and some of the eighty and quarter sec- 
tion homesteads have been found scant of full measure from 
one to two acres. It is probable that those short tracts of 
land may have the full amount of tillable surface if tilled as 
they were surveyed. 

In the organization of the county a commissioner s^^stem 
was enacted by which the interests of the entire precincts 
were placed under the controle of three commissioners. 
They were generally selected from [trecincts in different lo- 
calities, but there was no regular district system comprising 
certain precincts to be represented by each trustee. As the 
interest of the county was mutually shared by all the pre- 
cincts this arrangement was, for a short time, acceptaple. 
The hrst seeming cause for dissatisfaction with this plan of 
county government, whether it was so considered at the 
time or not, occurred at the begmning and during the con- 
test between Seward and Milford for the perminent location 
of the county seat. A majority of the county board at that 
time was two and the system of representation left it more 
than probable that the majority would favor one or the other 
of the contestants as their own personal interests dictated, 
and considerable legal trickery was manufactured and a gen- 
eral contention was in progress with the board during the 
contest, some of them being arrested on false charges made 
by parties on both sides of the contest. From that period 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 133 

on to the change to township organization when each pre- $ 
cinct was represented by a supervisor, the three men county f 
board was in disfavor. The change to the supervisor sys- [ 
tern was made in January, 1886 and each precinct elected'? 
a supervisor at the election in November of that year. But ; 
this system soon went out of favor on account of the expense ': 
for the salary of so many which was wisely considered un- ', 
necessary and in 1895 the system was revised and changed •- 
from the precinct supervisor to the district S3^stem which 
reduced the membership of the county board to seven. The 
districts under this arangement are composed of and repre- 
sent precincts as follows: 

ist Dist. B,"C and D precin.ej;s... ^i«--2nd-4^tv--E--arrd F. — 
3rd " City of-'SewM. " " 4th " A, H and G. 

5th " I, J and P. ' . 6th " L, Kand. M. . 

7th " N and O. 

-A- precinct is broken with hills and ravines. The soil is 
mixed in many places with an unusual amount for Nebraska 
soil, with gravel and in some localities large stones or "nig- 
ger heads," as they are called in their native countr3^ appear 
above the surface. Regardless of these seeming defects the 
soil is as rich and productive as any soil in the county. The 
early sett'ers of the precinct were favored with an abund- 
ance of oak and other valuable native timber. A saw mill 
was built at Oak Groves in -A- precinct in the earh^ sixties 
where oak lumber was sawed out to supply settlers of a large 
portion of the countr}', some of it finding its way to the city 
of Lincoln. It was the banner precinct of Seward county 
for fuel timber. Springs of pure water abound along the 
ravines. Among the other natural advantages in -A- pre- 
cinct was its deposite of lime stone from which lime was 
produced by the early settlers in sufficient quantities to supplv 
the needs in that line of Seward county and ajacent towns 
including the capital city. The precinct has no village or 



134 KISIORV OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA, 

town, but is in proximity to railway stations on two differ- 
ent roads in that many different directions — Bee on the C. 
& N. W., and Raymond on the Union Pacific. Settlement 
began in 1864. 

-B- precinct is much more level than -A- but is quite 
broken in places where draws or ravines extend from Middle 
Creek which heads just west of it. In the original organiza- 
tion of the precincts in the early sixties, -B- was known as 
Plum Creek precinct and comprised two and one-half towns 
being six miles wide north and south by fifteen miles east 
and west. Under these conditions the precinct caught a 
large percentage of the county's settlement in the early six- 
ties. It has at present one market, postoffice and trading 
place — the village of Bee, established on the C. & N. W. 
rail road line in 1887. 

-C- precinct is a North Blue river townshij), that stream 
entering it in section three flows to the south-east corner of 
the precinct. It also has ' Lincoln creek in the south-west 
quarter. While these two streams cause it to be rough they 
have added their fertile valleys to the agricultural wealth of 
the precinct and in earl}^ times furnished the settlers with 
needed timber of spontaneous growth along their banks. It 
had a post office and trading place at Marysville early in 
pioneer days. It has a railway station and market at the 
enterprising village of Staplehurst. 

-D- precinct is located, as will be noticed in the diagram, 
m the north-west corner of the county. It is mostly up-land 
from the North Blue river and Lincoln creek. In regard to 
the quality of the land we can sa}^ that it needs no recom- 
mendation from any one. It is sufficient to say that it is 
Seward county land and as good as the best. 

-E- precinct lies south of -D- and has perhaps the most 
level surface of any other precinct in the county, the south- 
ern portion requiring artificial drainage. The B. & M. rail 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 135 

road passes through from east to west in about the center, 
of the precinct. It contains Utica, the third largest village 
or town in the county. 

-F- precinct is one among the best farming towns in the 
county. It IS up-land that gradualiy slopes towards the 
North Blue river and Lincoln creek. And while it is not 
subject to damage during wet seasons it stands drouths as 
well as any town in the county. It contains Tamora,one of 
the later villages and an excellent market and trading place. 

-G- precinct is more rough than the others named, having 
the hills and ravines leading from the North Blue river which 
passes entirely through the township in an angling course 
from north-west to south-east, also the breakes from Lincoln 
and Plumb creeks. It contains the city of Seward which 
has been transformed into a precinct within a precinct. 
There was a greater early settlement in -G- than in any 
other town in the cjunty. 

-H- precinct is on the east line of the count3^ It is 
broken with hills and ravines and springs and spring runs 
abound along which an excellent grade of native timber has 
added to its advantages. The precinct contains German- 
town, a grain and cream market, with two elevators and one 
of Nebraska's large creamries. 

-I- precinct is hilly. The Middle creek breaks extend 
through it. Springs are numerous along the ravines and 
Middle creek valley. There is an abundance of very nice 
red sand stone along the creek which constitutes fine building 
material. The village of Pleasant Dale is located in the 
southern portion of the precinct. 

-J- precinct lies next west of -I- and in many respects is 
a model township. The North Blue river traverses it from 
the north-west to the south-east, giving it excellent water 
and drainage advantages, and adding its rich bottom land 
to the agricultural wealth of the precinct as well as the timber 



136 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

production along the stream. The village of Ruby is locat- 
ed in the precinct. 

-K- precinct is one of the most valuable tracts of farming 
land in Seward county. There is scarcely a foot of waste 
land in the precinct, either from roughness or swampy ba- 
sins. The village of Goehner is located in the western por- 
tion of the town since the construction of the C. & N. W. 
rail road. But in pioneer time Seward was the market for 
the farm produce of -K- precinct. 

-L- precinct bounds -K- on the west and extends to the 
York county line. It contains considerable rough and broken 
land. Beaver creek cuts the south-west corner and Walnut 
creek rises in the north-west corner and passes through to 
the south-east. And in addition to the roughness from those 
two creeks, ravines extend to the south half of the precinct 
from the West Blue river. But regardless of this seeming 
defect -L- town is an up-to-date farming precinct and its 
hills and hollows are worth from one hundred to two hundred 
dollars an acre. There is no village in the precinct. It has 
the advantage of markets at Utica, Tamora, Goehner and 
Beaver Crossing; being almost surounded by rail road sta- 
tions near its borders. 

-M- precinct contains a rough and rich tract of land. It 
is broken in the northern portion by the West Blue river 
which passes through it from west to east and Johnson creek 
passes through the southern half of the town from west to 
east, the ravines extending from these streams well over the 
land. There was an abundance of natural timber along the 
river in pioneer days which was nearly exhausted by the 
early settlers, but a second growth has about replenished 
the product. This precinct has more water than any other 
precinct in the county. In addition to the excellent water 
power of the West Blue river and its bed of running water 
there are a hundred or more Howing wells, from which 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 137 

enough pure water goes to waste every day to supply a 
power to run the county's eiectric hght plants and grist mills. 
In fact a water power could undoubtedly be constructed 
from the fiowing well body of water that would excel any 
other water power in Nebraska and not injure the natural 
system. -M- is the only precinct in the county that con- 
tains two distinct villages and rail road stations — Beaver 
Crossing, a pioneer town, in the northern portion, and Cor- 
dova, established later, in the south-west corner of the pre- 
cinct. 

-N- precinct is similar to -M- in the land surface and is 
favored with the same water advantages. The West Blue 
river and Johnson creek extend through the sections from 
west to east and fiowing wells exist along the river bottom 
to near the east line of the town. There is no railway sta- 
tion nor postoffice in the precmct. Its market places are 
Milford on the north, Dorchester on the south and Beaver 
Crossing on the west. In -N- precinct Seward county's 
last remanent, a memorable sod house was inhabited as late 
as 1892. This interesting relic of days gone by stood mid- 
way between what was termed "the two churches" in the 
south part of the precinct. 

-O- precinct is watered by both the North Blue river, 
which passes through its northern sections, and the West 
Blue in the southern portion. As must be supposed the pre- 
cinct contains a broken land surface from the two rivers, but 
there is no discount upon its agricultural value, it being one 
among the best in the county. It has a railway station and 
excellent market at Milford. -O- was singularly noted in the 
late sixties and early seventies by what will be remembered 
by early settlers as "Dobie Town." It was located about 
a mile and a half west of Milford and consisted in a row of 
five pioneer dwelling houses, composed of adobe brick from 
which it derived its name. These unique dwellings were the 



138 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

results of the pioneer ingenuity of S. S. and John Atwood, 
Wm. H. and Lee Smiley and Ira Gallup who owned and 
occupied the structures in those early days of Seward county 
settlement. 

-P- precinct is in the county's south-east corner and is 
the end of the alphabetical list ot townships. It contains, 
undoubtedly, the richest agricultural tract of land in Seward 
county. It lays largely upon the river bottoms, the vallies 
of the North and West Blue rivers coming together here 
form an extensive plteau of level surface of rich, loomy soil. 
The precinct has no railway station and its nearest and best 
market places are at Crete and Milford. It has the distinc- 
tion of having the first village, Camden; the first postofftce; 
first school and first bridge in Seward county all of which 
have received previous mention in this work. 

In our brief mention of the precincts we have merely out- 
lined in rotation and alphabetical order the sixteen localities 
which compose the whole area which we have had and still 
have under consideration — Seward county — therefore we 
pass from their separate mention to the general work which 
includes all sections and towns of the county. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



W. W. Cox and His History of Seward County — Its Dedication — His 
Daughter's louching Portray of Her Pioneer Childhood Home. 



The subject of this sketch was one of the grand charac- 
ters of Seward county manhood. To speak of his greatness 
of heart is to speak of the man as his heart dominated every 
fibre of his body and soul. While there are those whose 
opinions may differ with his views there are none with kindly 
motives who can sustain a reproach to his good will towards 
his fellow man. As one among the earliest settlers of the 
county, he and his good wife were perhaps the only ones of 
that never to be forgoten advance guard called pioneers, who 
emegrated to its wild prairie in search of a home by the only 
mode of conveyance God had given them — on foot. They 
had been engaged in drying salt at Salt Basin, near where 
the city of Lincoln is now located, and the gradual decrease 
in the salt product gave them reason to think that the time 
had come when they must make a change, therefore one 
bright morning in 1863 they bade farewell to their cabin and 
struck out accross the prairie in search of a home with noth- 
ing to guide them but the setting sun. After a weary day's 
journey they landed in Seward county and finding their 
ideal section, took a homestead near the present city of 
Seward, having for neighbors a few stalwart pioneers, the 
howling wolves and stroling bands of Indians. Here our 
former county historian and his faithful wife spent their pio- 
neer period, sharing its enjoyments with its adversities, and 
later enjoying, for many years, the fruks of the advanced 
changes their hands had aided in establishing. After the 
death of that loved and loving wife, which occurred several 
years ago, he spent a number of his declining years in com- 



140 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

piling a history of the county they had done so much to im- 
prove. And as a matter of respect to the memory of our 
worthy historical predecessor we here quote his eloquent ex- 
pression of sentiment in the dedication of his work to the 
memory of his departed wife. 

"To the ever kind and loving companion that walked 
hand in hand with me nearly forty-four years of Hfe's journey, 
sharing all the privations of frontier life, and lending cheer 
in all the dark hours and performing so nobly all the duties 
incumbent on her as wife and mother, as neighbor and friend, 
ever ready to lend a helping hand in matters of charity or 
public enterprise — she that walked so faithfully in the service 
of her Divine Master over half a century and when her work 
was all done passed over the dark river to dwell in the 
Heavenly home — is this book lovingly dedicated as a memo- 
rial to Rebecca Sampson Cox. Author." — Cox's History. 

In regard to Cox's History we wish to first speak by a 
reference to the work. It is a book worthy of a place in the 
library of any Seward county citizen. It has, as such works 
do, its merits and demerits, but perhaps enough of the 
former for sufficient redemption from the latter and enough 
to make it a valuable reference record. 

Mr. Cox's efforts to embody too many matters out of line 
of his theme and foreign to real county history forms the 
greatest point for criticism of his work. While it crowded 
his space, enlarged his work and gave his readers too much 
reading to get a little history, it taxed his ability to give im- 
partial accounts of the many different lodges, churches, news- 
papers, etc., and prevent those matters crowding the real 
work under consideration. His history contains one hun- 
dred and eight pages of territorial matter, mostly devoted to 
memorable stketches of J. SterHng Morton, Gen. John M. 
Thayer, Dr. Miller, Nebraska City's fire, some territorial 
newspapers etc., all of which are published under the head 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 14, 

lines of "Seward County History." It is not such in any 
sense whatever. He devotes torty-four pages to newspaper 
clippings, mostly incomprehensibly brief and without loca- 
tion such as "S. R. Douglas caught a coon." "Jan. 28th — 
The Baptist church was completed." "The Presbyterian 
church is raised." "July 2nd — Four hghts in the streets are 
mentioned." Now these items are supposed to be newspaper 
clippings (only a very few however of similar ones published 
in his book) and as such will substantiate our statement that 
newspaper clippings are not history. 

Private correspondence or so called "historical letters," 
some of them, like A. E. Sheldon's, written from the fanci- 
ful memory of a very small child, exaggerated to the gro- 
tesque desire of irresponsible and careless statements or air 
castles, made in disregard of public sentiment, are very far 
from true history. Fifty-two pages of Mr. Cox's history are 
devoted to letters from different individuals. While some of 
them are instructive some of them are scarcely worth the ink 
they are printed with and there is but little history in the 
majority of them. 

He devotes two hundred and four pages to paragraphical 
sketches of indiveduals which were paid for by the parties 
receiving the notice, thus making his work a partial and not 
a general history of the county — it being general only so far 
as it was paid for. It might be said that while those para- 
praphs were paid for they were biographical sketches of 
the hves of Seward county people, but what has the history 
of any person, previous to his or her Seward county residence 
got to do with that county's history? But since we are m- 
vestigating the injuries his history sustained from the public 
sentiment and opinion its own contents created we must re- 
call the general tendency of his work to partisan politics and 
in this consideration we are brought face to face with two of 
those biographical sketches of at least two men who were 



142 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

never Seward county citizens, one of them being none other 
than E. H. Hinshaw, one of the lowest down poHtical dem- 
agouges Nebraska ever had and a disgrace to the party that 
honored him and fully as much so to Cox's history. The 
other, an honorable christian gentleman, J. H. Mickey, twice 
governor of Nebraska, but received space in the afore said 
history on account of party politics. While the foregoing 
matters were detriments to Mr. Cox's history they are dam- 
aging in their effects upon the minds of many people to any 
work which may follow in the line of county history. It is 
not easy to compete with the size of Cox's history and pro- 
duce no other matter than historical matter of Seward coun- 
ty. We mention these things because they are true condi- 
tions in regard to his work and not to injure Mr. Cox nor the 
history he so diligently compiled. He is at rest and his 
book is out of print and it is beyond our power to injure or 
benefit them. 

Among the several letters published by him as "histori- 
cal letters," there is on.e we feel justified in reproducing. It 
displays a grand sentimentality and comes from the pen of 
not only Mr. Cox's daughter, but a Seward county daughter. 

And her story seems, perhaps, more pathetic in view of 
the fact that the writer passed to her final rest while quite 
young, leaving a husband and one son one year old. She 
was born at Nebraska City in 1861. She was married to 
Frank P. Pingree, and with him settled at Colby, Kansas, 
but removed to Washington, D. C, in 1891, where she died 
in 1892. She was the second daughter of W. W. Cox and 
will be remembered at this date by many as a successful 
teacher in several Soward county schools, commencing her 
career as teacher before she was fifteen years old. She 
took a great interest in chautauqua work, and although 
never permitted to meet with a circle, she was graduated and 
received the white seal for proficiency in the work. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 143 

The Wilderness Home of My Childhood, 

NETTIE M. cox PINGREE. 

"The hills are dearest which our childish feet 

Have climbed the earliest; and the streams most sweet 

Are ever those at which our young lips drank, 

Stooped to their waters o'er the mossy banks." — Whittier. 

"Though years have passed since our last visit to the old 
homestead, visions come to us ot the woods and valleys by 
the sparkling waters of the beautiful Blue. 

"The river winds its crooked way through the valley 
with many a curve, forming broad acres of woodland which 
were a perfect paradise to us during the whole year. There 
in the spring time the green grass and violets formed a 
beautiful carpet for our feet, while around us the alder and 
wild plum blossoms made fragrant the air with their sweet 
scented odor. 

"Down the garden path bordered with moss roses and 
morning glories, we would speed away to the river, bait our 
hooks for fish, and cross the foot log and follow the path 
through the woods to the schoolhouse. That little rough 
board shanty, sodded all around, and the home-made, knife- 
marked desks have given place to new and better ones. The 
children upon the playground are strange to us, but the 
same games of "blind man's bufif, " and "drop the handker- 
chief," are played by them as we played them long years 
since. 

"The grape-vine swing must not be forgotten, for there, 
with choicest flowers, was crowned the queen of May, and 
also, in childish sport, were wedded two schoolmates, just 
twent}' years ago. 

"Under the welcome shade of the old walnut tree by the 
ford, we studied our Sunday-school lessons, and were often 



144 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

lulled to sleep by the merry song of the wild birds. 

"During the long summer days, wading around the sand- 
bars and gathering shells afforded us a delightful pastime, 
and as the sun was seeking the western horizen, we would 
mount old Ned, the family horse, ford the river and go to 
the farther pasture after the cows. 

"Each land hath its shadows and each home hath its 
ghosts and ours was not an exception. The "Big grove" 
was the most beautiful of all the "bends," on account of the 
heavy timber and heavy foliage. There the sugar maple 
trees abounded, and there grew the most berries, the latter 
being very important, for man\^ a new dress and coat were 
bought with the profits realized from their sale. 

"One evening at dusk something large and white, resem- 
bling a great bear, was seen to come out of these woods and 
although we afterwards learned that it was only a neighbor 
boy with a bed-tick over his head, we never ventured again 
into that grove without company. 

"When the autumn sun changed the foliage and ripened 
the fruits, then was our harvest. It would be difficult to de- 
cide who worked the harder to store away the winter's sup- 
ply of walnuts and acorns, we children or the squirrels. 
Perhaps we tired of the labor more quickly than our little 
forest friends, tor frequently the restful shade of the great 
oaks would be too tempting, and we seated ourselves by 
their roots and wove wreaths of the brilliant-hued leaves, 
while the autumn winds sighed and rustled the branches 
overhead, making a beautiful accompaniment to our fancies. 
But when winter came with its hoary frosts and covered the 
earth with its blanket of snow and the cold winds whistled 
through the barren timber, then, like all the children of the 
woods, the most comfortable place for us was home. That 
little log cabin, with its great fireplace and clay-chincked 
walls, is the most cherished of all places. The dove-cote 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 145 

upon its roof, the cave behind it, the box-alder and cotton- 
wood trees, and the old fashioned well will always be re- 
membered. 

It seems but yesterday that father brought in the huge 
back-log and built a brilliant fire in front of it, then popped 
the corn for our first Christmas eve in our new home. He 
took us children on his knee and told us of Santa Claus, and 
how he would come down the huge chimney and fill our 
stockings, if we would hurry ofT to bed. Mother tucked the 
covers carefully about us and resumed her knitting, while 
father read aloud, by the light of the blazing brushwood, the 
latest news of the rebellion, which was then raging with all 
its horrors. 

We watched the shadows cast by the i^ickermg light of 
the burning embers upon the hearth until we fell aleep, 
dreaming as all childeren do, of Kris Kringle and his won- 
derful sleigh full of toys. In the morning, when the sun's 
first rays peeped through the curtains of the one window in 
the cabin, with a bright Christmas greeting, we hastened to 
our stockings to find them overflowing with popcorn and 
doughnuts. Away down in the toe we found a stick of can- 
dy and a pair of lovely red mittens with little snowfiakes all 
over them. We were a happy little band, and although 
many Christmases have come and gone, and Santa Claus 
has filled our stocking with a far more lavish hand, none will 
have the same place in our memory as the one of '64. 

But now, far removed from those loved scenes of child- 
hood and looking out upon the broad expanse of prairie and 
corn land, our minds will naturally wander back to the old 
homestead, and decide that, though home is home where'er 
it may be, yet that halo cannot be taken away from our 
father's hearthstone." — Cox's History. 

The foregoing interesting letter was reproduced in respect 
and memory of the historian, W. W. Cox and family. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



Seward County's Newspapers. 



We are not here to give a newspaper history only so far 
as their history is connected with the history of our county. 
We mention this because we note the failure ot W. W. Cox 
in his effort to publish the histories of the county newspapers 
embodied in h's county history. Mr. Cox presented only a 
partial history of two or three of the county's newspapers, 
and let the ballance "go to grass." In this matter he made 
the error in his opinion that history of minor things within 
the county was county history and found it a "white ele- 
phant" which he was forced to drop, as he did some other 
things, on account of the immensity of the work. The news- 
papers are to be remembered among the prime factors which 
advanced Seward county towards the grand changes that 
have covered it with the luster of precious gems by placing a 
crown of inestunable valuation upon its natural resources. 

The first paper in the county was published at Seward 
in March, 1870 by O. T. B. Williams, under the name of 
"Nebraska Atlas." The support to a paper in those days 
was very weak and the "Atlas" was forced to suspend after 
a short life of four years. In December 1870 the "Blue 
Valley Record," the second paper to make an appearnce in 
Seward county, was started at Milford by Culver & Parsons. 
It managed to live on Seward county fare for two and a 
half years when it took its iiight to Lincoln where it was con- 
solidated with another pioneer journal and where one of its 
former editors, J. H. Culver, abandoned it and returned to 
Milford after a short period. 

Following these publications came the "Nebraska Repor- 
ter." It was founded at Seward in the early seventies by 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 147 

Charles Crony who was succeeded by O. S. Ingham who 
shortly turned its management over to Thomas Wolf. He 
kept the paper on a solid foundation for two or three years, 
or until 1876 when Frank Simons became its editor. Mr. 
Simons made a first class county paper of it and cotmued 
its publication till 1899 when it was suspended and the plant 
sold. 

"The Advocate," Seward's third publication, and the 
fourth in the county, was started in 1877 by W. S. Walker 
who published it for a period of two years when J. H. Betzer 
purchased the plant and established the "Blue Valley 
Blade." Under Mr. Betzer's able management the "Blade" 
become a creditable journal, but age forced him to retire and 
turn the management over to his son who still conducts the 
business. 

"The Seward County Democrat," Milford's second pub- 
lication, was fonded in 1882 by Alexander Brothers. When 
the "Democrat was two years old it was sold to Prof. Geo. 
F. Burkett who renamed it "Milford Ozone." Shortly after- 
wards Editor Burkett took Horace Boyle as partner who 
soon sold his interest to H. C. Hensel. After two months 
Mr. Hensel purchased his partner's interest in the publica- 
tion and changed the name of the paper, calling it the "Mil- 
ford Nebraskan" and it flourished for three years under his 
management when he transferred it to H. A. Brainard. Mr. 
Brainard was succeeded in the business by Mr. Warner in 
1893 and Mr. Warner established his son-in-law, L.O.How- 
ard in the editorship of the Nebraskan after a few years and 
the paper was continued until a recent period. The "Milford 
Mirror made its appearance in Milford in 1895. It was a 
bright, neatly printed local newspaper, ably published by W. 
L. Withrow, but did not receive the support it deserved and 
suspended after one year. 

The first newspaper published at Beaver Crossing worthy 



148 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

of mention, was printed at Milford by H. C. Hensel and 
issued at Beaver Crossing in 1886 under the name of "Beaver 
Crossing Bugle." This paper continued under Air. Hensel's 
management about a year and then was issued by George 
H. Borden who continued it for a short time when it disa- 
peared. Following shortly upon the terminus of this enter- 
prise, P. C. Carpenter launched the "Beaver Crossing Jour- 
nal. " the first paper to be printed in the town. Mr. Carpen- 
ter published the "Journal" till the spring of 1891 when he 
sold it and the plant to Dewitt Eager who leased the plant 
to Ed. Miller and he established the "Farmer's Patriot." 
This paper was issued at Beaver Crossing one 3^ear when 

D. Eager sold the plant to J. H. Waterman who founded 
the "Weekly Review" and Mr. Miller moved his "Patriot" to 
Crete. The "Review" was published by its founder five 
years, at the end of which time Dewitt Eager re-purchased 
the plant and leased it to Harry E. Stout who continued the 
Review until he had collected all the advance subscriptions 
he couled and then left for other fields. Beaver Crossing 
was then without a news dispenser for about six months when 

E. N. Overman came to the rescue and resurected the old 
"Review." He continued the publication for three years 
at the end of which period Mr. Eager re-sold it to J. H. 
Waterman under whose management the life of the "Re- 
view" was extended until 1905 when F. C. Diers purchased 
it and opened up a surprise sheet under the stunning name 
of "The Pride Of Beaver Crossing." After a few issues of 
this paper its name indicated so much sweetness that Mr. 
Diers, through large hearted kindness to the citizens, chang- 
ed the name, calling it "Beaver Crossing Times." ¥. C. 
Diers' "Pride" was such a "stumbling block" to his own suc- 
cess in the publishing of a paper that he soon quit and turn- 
ed it over to his brother who shortly transferred it to Mr. 
Scaggs. The "Times" proved too hard for Scaggs and he 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 149 

"flew de coop" one night for parts unknown, leaving the sad 
announcement that "this is the last of Scaggs." The sec- 
ond Diers was then forced to resume the management of the 
paper under a strong protest, stating his determination to 
discontinue the publication if he could not soon make a sale 
of it, offering it to the writer at his own price. In this di- 
lemma, forced upon him by the slackened newspaper enter- 
prise and support of the "prominent citizens" who had held 
out false inducements to get the Dierses to leave good and 
remunerative positions to come to the town to "run" some- 
body else "out" of a ligitimate printing business, Mr. Diers 
scanned ever}^ avenue of escape. When he had about 
reached the cHmax of patient endurance on insufficient sup- 
port, he succeded in making a sale of the "Times," trans- 
ferring with it the title to the "hard times" which were the 
legacies of Beaver Crossing editors, to E. A. McNeil, who 
has felt and still feels the squeezing grip of "tight wads" in 
the conducting of his paper. F. C. Diers was well aware of 
the scheme of boycotting spite work of those "business men" 
he choosed to call them, who had induced him to make a sac- 
rifice upon their altar of folly and personal spite and there- 
fore reaped from the "gang" just what he planted for some- 
body else. He was so carried away with the deceptive flat- 
tery of his solicitors that he immagined himself the center 
of atraction and named his paper "The Pride of Beaver 
Crossing." With the fall of his "Pride" he lost his job at 
Exeter and a good, comfortable home at that place. 

About the time of the birth of the aforesaid "Pride," the 
writer established a paper in Beaver Crossing under the 
name ot the "Independent Examiner." This paper was a 
success in as much as it went outside of Beaver Crossing 
for advertising patronage while it received a fine subscription 
support at home and a share of the better grade of home ad- 
vertising. The plant was the best in its job department ever 



150 f^ISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

put in the town and was over run with fine job work, making 
the enterprise a financial success, but on account of faihng 
health we were forced to sell the business after eighteen 
months. J. I). Austin, of Bethan}', Nebraska purchased it, 
moving the plant to Bethany where he started the "Christian 
Reporter. The writer again entered the publishing arena at 
Beaver Crossing by starting the "Echo," Jauuary ist, 1913. 
This little {)aper run one year and was discontinued. 

The seccMid "Seward County Democrat" was started at 
Seward by H. E. McClellan in J884. This "Democrat" 
was only four years old when it was sold to M. Meehan who 
renamed it "People's Rights." Shortly after this D, M. 
Smith established the Seward County Independent which 
was bought by Meehan and consolidated with the "People's 
Rights." This paper and plant was sold in 1893 to the Inde- 
pendent Publishing Company and the "Seward Independent" 
was its offspring. In 1891 P. C. Carpenter revived the 
name of "Seward County Democrat " under which he estab- 
lished and published a paper for five years when it expired. 
In 1897 Wm. H. Smith purchased the dead Democrat and 
the "Seward County Independent" and founded a {>aj)er 
under the consolidated name of "Independent-Democrat. " 
Under Mr. Smith's management this paper has become one 
of the best and most popular local and count}^ newaspapers 
in Nebraska. Mr. Smith is serving as State Auditor, but 
still owns the plant and publishes the paper while it is ably 
edited and managed by R. W. Johnson. 

The "Farmer's Zeitung, " a German paper made its first 
appearance at Seward, Friday, April 12, 1901 ander the 
management of Joseph Tagwerker. The paper has not fail- 
ed to appear regularly every week since its first issue and has 
become a perminent Seward enterprise. It is non-partisan 
in politics. 

The "Utica Sun" was founded at Utica by Frank Comp- 



HrSTOKY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 151 

ton in 1886 and was {uiblished by him for some time. His 
successors in its publication at ditierent periods were first his 
brother, VVm. Compton, who was followed by Stephen 
Lowley, E. W. Harvey, and again William Compton who 
died while its editor, his wife continuing its [Publication for 
some time. She was followed b\' H. M. Smith, Hunter & 
Harvey and finally by the present able editor, Dana R.Mutz. 
The "Sun" has reflected its rays from the pens of more dif- 
ferent editors than any other newspaper in Seward county, 
but it is creditable to each of them that the name of the pa- 
per has not been disturbed or changed. The enterprise of 
Utica citizens in supporting their paper gave the place the 
credit by newspaper unions of being the banner country 
newspaper town in the state, whether this record has been 
maintained to the })resent or not we are not able to state, 
but trust it has. 

The "Tamora Register" was founded at Tamora in 1892 
and continued publication till 1909 when it suspended and 
F. P. Shields started a fire tinted, short lived paper under 
the name of ' 'Shields' Tamora Lyre. " We are unable to say 
what his object was for doing so, but he printed his "Lyre" 
on pink paper, but the "Lyre" went out of tune in 1913. 

H. Sage started a paper called the "Journal" at Cordova 
in 1889. It was short lived. The "Cordova Progress" was 
started by Frank Dorsey in 1892. It was a bright little 
paper and continued publicaiion two or three years when it 
suspended. 

Now, we believe this completes the list of Seward count}^ 
publications and is a creditable record tor the count\\ 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Early (Official Conditions in Seward County — The First Election — First 
Board of County Commissioners and County Officers — Tax Assess- 
ments and Collections. 



The Epoch in the official era in Seward count}' is record- 
ed in the latter period of Nebraska territorial government. 
Like other matters of pioneer times it had a feeble beginning 
and would call to mind that memoriable time in life when 
all humanity "creeps before it walks." Official spoils and 
rewards had no charms in those early times, the machinery 
of county government being run with little financial support, 
and without office salaries, the incumbents serving for the 
good of the country. 

Under the provisions of the territorial law Seward county 
formed a part of Lancaster county, for judicial purposes, but 
at the October election in 1865 it was released from this com- 
pact and elected its first board of county commissioners 
which was composed of William Imly, of -G- precinct; W. 
J. Thompson, of -K- precinct and H. W. Parker of -P- pre- 
cinct. At this election there were but twenty-four votes 
cast in the count}^ The newly elected board proceeded 
immediatly to legal business, meeting and organizing it 
canvased the votes and found the following canidates for the 
difterent county offices duly elected: Thomas West, clerk; 
C. ]. Nieghardt, treasurer; J. L. Davison, probate judge; 
W. E. Chapin, sherifi. 

To the credit of this pioneer board of county commis- 
sioners and those first county officials it may be said they 
laid the foundation upon which the future official welfare of 
the count}' was destined to stand. Notwithstanding the many 
difficulties of those ungovervable times the business of the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 153 

county intrusted in their hands was duly cared for and trans- 
acted. Contentions over the county seat location and other 
unsettled matters kept the board almost constantly between, 
two fires. The meeting place of the board was at indefinite 
places and at the close of one board meeting the members 
scarcely knew what locality of the county the next meeting 
would be in. There was but a small amount of taxable 
real estate in the county, which was assessable at a low rate 
and did not afiord much revenue. Personal property was 
limited and taxes upon it soon became delinquent and dif- 
ficult to collect and the financial means to make both ends 
meet in the public expenses was an unsolved problem. But 
the record of official conduct is an unbroken evidence of the 
public enterprise that ever prompted our pioneer business 
managers to a creditable performance of duty. 

The tax levy fixed by the county board for 1865 and 1866 
was six mills on the dollar. Had this tax been fully collected 
it would not furnished an amount equal to one-fourth of the 
yearly salary of one of several of our county officials at the 
present time. The record, so far as we have been able to 
learn, shows amount of levy for 1865 upon all assessed valu- 
ations to have been $175.95. The total amount of general 
fund collected was I62.62 and the amount paid out by the 
treasurer on warrants was $65.33 leaving a balance due the 
treasurer of $2.71. The total amount of road tax collected 
was $60.48, six dollars and forty-one cents being allowed the 
treasurer for collecting there was still in his hands 54.44. 
The amount of general fund delinquent, 25.45. Delinquent 
road tax, 27.50. 

The tax levy for the two years of 1865 and 1866 amount- 
ed to $423.34, penalties added bringing the total up to $440- 
37. Of this amount $319.91 was collected, leaving a delin- 
quency of $120.46, and with several unpaid warrants out- 
standing the treasurer had but eight dollars and fiftv-seven 



154 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

cents of county funds to pay them with. The only school 
fund was a dog tax amounting to eighteen dollars. And as 
there were no roads only such as had grown wild on the 
prairie we are unable to state what the road fund was for. 
Schools were all supported and sustained by private sub- 
scription and the dog tax may have been intended as seed 
for the propagation of other school tax. Our early settlers 
were very enthusiastic over school matters and perhaps 
thought the tax on dogs for school purposes would be a good 
start in the right direction, and would let the world know 
that public education was at least remembered and consid- 
ered in Seward county. The eighteen dollars dog tax would 
have been sufficient capital to build one sod school house or 
with the aid of volunteer help, build several of them. 

The official business of Seward county with unorganized 
counties west of it and attached to it for judicial and other 
purposes is not considered in the record of Seward county's 
business transactions, although the tax assessments in those 
counties seem to have been made by Seward county citizens 
who were allowed three dollars a day for their services. 

From the beginning of county government in 1865 there 
was a marked degree of advancement in public aiiairs. As 
valuations in tax assessments increased tax collections be- 
came more easy, these conditions being advanced in perpor- 
tion to the increasing settlement, general improvements, and 
increase in all kinds of stock. And there has been no period 
in the county's history when those attainments have been so 
rapid as they were in the period from 1865 to 1871. In that 
period the first county superintendent of public instruction 
was added to the list of county officials and school funds 
were raised by tax levy to support public schools throughout 
the county. And in some localities public funds had in- 
creased to such an extent that the citizens had advanced a 
scheme to build a railroad with county funds. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



Precinct Settlements and Pioneer Settlers. 



We find it difficult to obtain, at this late date, names of 
even a majority of those who made homes in the pioneer 
days in Seward county. But we have geathered a number 
from each precinct which we are glad to record on these 
pages. Many narries which are not mentioned here may be 
found in the list of those who have passed to their imal rest, 
published farther along in this work. 

A PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Settlement began in this precinct in 1864, John A. Scott 
and John Owens took homesteads in section 22 in that year. 
J. D. Maine on the same section in the spring of 1865 fol- 
lowed later in the same year b^^ x\sa Munn and Warren 
Brown who located homesteads on section 20. John D. 
Olney settled on section 22 in 1866. John Darnell, S. M. 
Darnell and W^illiam Clapp on the same section, W. R. 
Waddles on section 18 and R. H. Dart on section 30 in 
1867. G. B. Hardenberg, E. W. Olney and H. Hawkins 
were settlers in the late sixties. H. M. Brooks and Milton 
Langdon settled near Oak Groves in 1872. The former, 
H. M. Brooks was a Union soldier during the war of the 
rebellion. His son, Wm. J. sharing his father's patriotism 
served in a Nebraska regiment during the U. S. war with 
Spain. 

B PRECINCT PIONEER S?:TTLERS. 

Settlement in this precinct seems to have been made at 
a later period than in -A- precinct. J. D. Hickman settled 
on section 32, J. T. Poor on section 28, W^illiam Hickman 
and J. W. Hickman on the same section, and Joseph Hick- 



156 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

man on section 30, all in 1868. F. M. Timblin and W. W. 
Moore on section 32, John Poor on section 8, Amos Cole- 
man on section 28, William Knight on section 20, and L.G. 
Johns on section 30 in 1869. John Quinlan, Thomas Quin- 
lan, John Varner, Peter Varner settled in the precinct in '68 
being followed in 1869 by James Reid, E. H. Nixon, J. T. 
Davis, H. G. Dawley, Elias McClure, and others previously 
mentioned. Michael Dunigan settled on a homestead in 
1871. Charles M. Gordon settled on railroad land in section 
13 in 1875. Calvin S. "Wright bought and settled on a farm 
near where the village of Bee is located in 1879. He con- 
ducted an extensive stock farm. Rev. Christian Bek settled 
on a farm in this precinct in 1877, but moved to Seward 
after a short residence where he organized an Evangelical 
church. 

We are sorry that we cannot give a complete list of the 
homestead settlers who served in the Union army during the 
war of the rebellion. Soldiers who returned from the service 
at the close of the war had an ungratified love for the old 
land marks around the home of their boyhood and did not 
take the interest in making new homes in an unsettled coun- 
try that they did a little later on, but we find a few mingled 
with the early pioneers. Michael Dunigan, was a Union 
soldier, served in an IlHnoise regiment from 1862 to 1865. 
Charles M. Gordon, another -B- precinct early settler was a 
Union soldier in the war of the rebellion, as was also L. G. 
Johns. 

C PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Settlement in this precinct began early. Frank Shields 
took a homestead in section 10 in 1863, bemg followed in 
1864 and 1865 by William Reed, J. A. Durland, Judge John 
W. Shields, George Reed, Frank E. Pitt, Moses Mitchel, 
Sidney Pitt, John W. Pitt, and Walter Hoops. William 
Hornberg,John W.Gladwish, John Schoepp.Ed. C. Archer, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 157 

John Gillbanks and Thomas Carr located in 1868. George 
Leggitt settled on section 28, and August Deahling on sec- 
tion 34 in 1869. Martin Castle settled on section 34, Wm. 
Reid on section 34, Geo. C.. McKay on section 28, Homer 
M. McKay on section 30 in 1870. Luke Agur settled on 
railroad land in 1871, errecting the Maryville flouring mill 
the same year. Martin V. Mitchell, Marian Graham, Geo. 
Streeter, Wm. Crosby and Robert Hitchcock were 1870 
homesteaders. Those reported as Union soldiers in the war 
of the rebellion are John W. Gladwish, Edward C. Archer, 
Sidney Pitt, and Thomas Carr. 

D PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Settlement in this precinct did not begin so early as it 
did in some others. William Jackman and son, John Jack- 
man settled on section 34 in the spring ot 1867, and in the 
fall of the same year Charles Dack, (3scar Ragan, Henry 
Harris and Jessie Horton took claims on section 28, and 
Frank Bivins on section 22, James B. Reynold, Timothy 
Johnson and William Johnson on section 32. A. D. Horn- 
berg homesteaded in 1868 and A. D. Ritchie in '69. Hon. 
W. E. Ritchie, son of A. D. Ritchie, homesteaded in 1870. 
Served one term in the Nebraska state legislature and one 
term in the state senate. C. Allen and E. B. Hatch were 
1872 homesteaders. Hoadley G. Hosford came in '69. He 
was a soldier in the Union army during the war of the re- 
bellion. 

E PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Settlement in this precinct began later than most any 
other precinct in Seward county which is evidence of the 
general desire among the early settlers to make homes upon 
bottom lands, and to shun the up-land precincts. There is 
no valley land in the precinct. Joseph Jones, Antius Keefer 
and Frank Johnson entered homestead claims on section 6 



158 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

in 1869. L. E. Morgan settled on section 22, Elisha Bab- 
cock on section 20, Benjamin Golden on section 14, A. J. 
Oliver on section 10, Louis Larson on section 24, and James 
Mikleson on section 10 in 1870. Howard M. Coleman set- 
tled on a quarter of section 28 in 187J, Rev. Calvm E. Phin- 
ney settling on the same section in '70. Loren Thygeson 
homesteaded on section 12, and James E. Hibbard on sec- 
tion 10 in '71. Hon. George A. Derby settled on section 30 
and B. F. Perry on a quarter of section 8 in '72. Fredrick 
Suhr, M. G. Wright, Samuel Gleason, and Mr. Greenwood 
all located homesteads in i87o-'7i. 

Of this number of settlers the following were soldiers in 
the war of the rebellion: Joseph Jones, served in the sixty- 
second Iowa infantry. Benjamin F. Perry, thirty-first Iowa 
infantry. James E. Hibbard, service not known. Rev. 
Calvin E. Phinney, and Howard M. Coleman. 

F PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Settlement in this precinct began as earl}' as 1864 when 
Rev. E.W.Johnson built a log house on section 24, Thomas 
Skillman settling on section 13, Joseph Sampson on section 
25 the same year. George and Russell Rogers and widow- 
ed mother each took homesteads on section 14 in 1866, and 
Charles Thurman and Joseph Thurman on the same section 
in '67. John W.Figard and Aaron Anderson settled on sec- 
tion 12, Henry Creighton, Charles Harvey, D. E. Lyon on 
section 34, Levi Hafer and Samuel Smith on section 26 in 
1867. Samuel Pence, H. F. Mayland on section 10, and 
John Woods on section 18 in 1868. Marcus Reightmyer 
settled on section 2, George Slonecker on section 14, Samuel 
D. Button on section 10 and Samuel G. Mathews, section 
22 in 1869, David H. Figard settling the same year. La- 
Fayette Weldon settled on section 30, Joseph W.Dupin and 
Isaac McFeely on section 8 in 1870. Ebenezer Jull settled 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 159 

on section 3, rail road land, in 1871. Alonzo Slonecker was 
an 1869 homesteader. John Slonecker bought a farm and 
Henry Slonecker a homestead and settled in 1875, Louis 
T. Bouchard in 1874 and W. S. Wallick on school land in 
1876. Henry Shultz was an 1870 homesteader. 

Of these early settlers who served in the Union army 
during the war of the rebellion were John Woods, Marcus 
Reightmyer, Samuel D. Dutton, and David H. Figard. 

G PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

This precinct had a greater early settlement than any 
other town in the county. Robert T. Gale, said to have 
been the first homesteader in Seward count}' and who was 
without doubt, among the earliest homesteaders in the United 
States took out homestead papers on a quarter section of 
Uncle Sam's domain just east of the present city of Seward 
upon the morning opening of the land office in Nebraska 
City the next morning after the homestead act became a 
law, January 2nd, 1863. Stites Wooley was another early 
homesteader, locating on section 15 near Seward's townsite 
in the fore part of 1864. This pioneer and wife were with- 
out doubt one of the oldest couples that settled upon wild 
land in Seward county at that time, he having been born in 
1807 and she in 181 1. But still another couple of pioneer 
homesteaders who may be classed, not only among the old- 
dest but as the oldest in the persons of David Imley and 
wife who settled on section 10 in 1864, he having been born 
in 1792 and she shortly afterwards. They were married in 
1814 and settled on a homestead the year of their golden 
wedding anniversary. W. W. Cox was an 1864 homestead 
settler. Hon. William Imlay settled the same year; was a 
member of the territorial legislature representing Seward and 
Lancaster counties one term and served three terms on 
Seward county's first board of commissioners. Rev. E. L. 



160 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Clark, Seward county's first resident preacher settled on a 
homestead two miles south of Seward in 1865. Lewis Mof- 
fit entered and settled upon a quarter, and a half of the ad- 
joining quarter of section 21, which became the townsite of 
Seward, the square upon which the county court house now 
stands being a portion of that homestead, in 1865. Lewis 
Anderson settled on the North Blue river bottom just west 
of Seward in ]866. Charles L. Lyon homesteaded on sec- 
tion 12, Levi Hafer three miles west of Seward and Wm. 
O. Pierce east of the townsite in 1868. Richard Sampson 
was an 1865 homesteader. Bayard Wickersham home- 
steaded the south-west quarter of section 14 in 1869. John 
N. Roberts was an 1865 homesteader and John Roberts sr. , 
James Brown, J. F. Duncan, Roger Cooper, William Cooper 
and E. B. Shafer came in 1866. Orson Olmstead settled 
in 1870. The earliest entries of government land in -G- 
precinct were a quarter of section 18 by E. L. Ellis in 1861, 
and a part of section 21 by George Hilton in 1862; but those 
gentlemen are not supposed to have been pioneer settlers. 

Those named as pioneer settlers that served in the Union 
army during the war of the rebellion are Charles L. Lyon, 
Bayard Wickersham, and George W. Anderson. 

H PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

The early settlement in this precinct was largely German 
and began when Louis Librock settled on section 28, Con- 
rad Grotz and Deidrich Grant on section 32 in 1866. Fritz 
Ropke and William Leppe settled on section 30, Jacob In- 
drana on section 20, Diedrich Wilkens on section 26, Con- 
rad Rohrkasto on section 32 in 1868. Jacob Thomas and 
John C. Thomas settled on section 18, John VVesterhof and 
C. C. Davis on section 8, and Charles Ruckstashel on sec- 
tion 20 in '69. Deitrich Brant, Andrew Shultz, William 
Luber, Gillman Garland, B.VV. Walker settled in '68. John 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 161 

Ohlwiler, Joseph Loose, J. D. Luft and Henry Petrie were 
1869 homesteaders. John Q.(3hlwiler and Benjamin Walk- 
er settled on adjoining homesteads and adopted a novel plan 
for complying with the requirements of the homestead law 
by building a house on tho line, one half on one claim and 
half on the other, so they could live together and each sleep 
and reside on his own homestead. Hon. Henrich Beckman 
settled on section 12 in 1870. Served in the state legislature 
in 1889. Carl G. A. Koch settled on section 24 in 1870, 
and Charles Richenbaugh located on a homestead the same 
year. One of the last homesteads was taken in 1872 on sec- 
tion 24 by Ernest Seick. Herman Goecke bought a quarter 
of section 12, homesteaded land, and settled upon it, and 
Henry Seick bought and settled upon a quarter of section 
II, rail road land, in 1872. 

John Q. Ohlwiler was a Union soldier in the war of the 
rebellion. 

I PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Settlement in this precinct began in the sixties. It has no 
valley lands except the Middle creek valley which is narrow. 
Deidrich Bankers settled on section 26, Hon. George W. 
Fuller, James Her, Abram Courtright, Steven Brown and 
John A. Raymer settled in 1869. Andrew Shultz took a 
homestead on section 14, and Syrenus Vanandel on section 
12 in 1870. Thomas Best and Ezra J. Newton were 1872 
homesteaders. John H. Merrill was an 1880 settler upon 
rail road land. 

Hon. George W. Fuller was a Union soldier in the war 
of the rebellion. Some years after settling upon his home- 
stead he moved to Seward where he engaged in the manu- 
facture of brick and the brick laying trade. Served one 
term as mayor of the city, two terms in the state legislature 
and one term in the state senate. 



162 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

J PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

This precinct seems to have caught the greatest early 
settlement of any other precinct in the county, due largely 
to the fine bottom lands and timber along the North Blue 
river which flows entirely through the precinct. Daniel 
Morgan and three sons, William, Thomas and Lewis pre- 
empted government land in section 26 in 1858. Job Reyn- 
olds settled on section 10, Thomas L. Rogers on section 22, 
Samuel Long and C. J. Niehardt on section 15 in 1863. 
Samuel Brown settled on section 35, Josephus Brown on 
section 26, William Hageman on section 10, G. V. Hage- 
man. Berry Davis, and John Grabil on section 14, Peter 
Grabil on section 22, Henry Palmer on section 14 and G. 
W. Lazenby on section 26 in 1866. Matthew Hackworth 
on section 14, Henry Michaels on section 24, Joseph Michaels 
on section 12, John H. Atwood on section 32, Harold Cham- 
bers and Walter Chambers on section 2 in 1868. Willis G. 
Hazelwood settled on sec-tion 30, William Brockaw on sec- 
tion 14, and James Miller on section 20 in 1869. Frank 
Morton was an 1870 homesteader. Isaac D. Neihardt and 
William Alschweede homsteaded in 1871. Harper Miller 
settled in 1872, P. P. Hershberger in 1876 and B. W. 
Houdersheldt in 1868. 

Isaac D. Neihardt was a Union soldier in the war of the 
rebellion. Was three times promoted, reaching the rank of 
major. Served two terms in the late seventies as Seward 
county's sheriff, was justice of the peace in Seward eight 
years and served several terms as police judge. 

K PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Settlement in this precinct began b\' the opening of a 
ranch on Walnut creek by William J. Thompson in 1864. 
Lemuel L. Allison settled on section 32, G. N. Perkins and 
Albert Norin on section 18 in 1869. James Hilleny, Wm. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 163 

Bivens, William Silence, Andrew Snider, Andrew Perkins, 
Ira Silence and Abram VVinsor settled in the s])ring of 1869. 
A. C. Miller, C. C. Tunecliff, John Floren and K. B. A. 
Bon nam settled on section 20, William Wilson and widowed 
mother, George Pervis and James Roberson on section 18 
Peter Johnson, Martin Madison and Ed. Jensen on section 
32, Levi Graul, Charles Lyon, Al. Williams, and Allen Cross 
on section 8 in 1870. Ch-ne Rhodes, J. Ciscoe, William 
Livesley, and Jaseii Williams were j 870 settlers. W^m. G. 
Keene purchased and settled on the Wm. J. Thompson 
ranch farm on Walnut creek in 1 871, George Hoover settling 
on the same section the same year. James M. Smiley came 
in 1872, Henry S. Wise, and Nicholas Wullenweber in 1873. 
E. N. Wingfield purchased and settled on the widow Wil- 
son homestead in 1873. 

Those of the above who served in the Union army dur- 
ing the war of the rebellion were Levi Graul, K. B. A. Bon- 
nam, Andrew Perkins and George Hoover. 

L PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Settlement began in this precinct in 1862 when John 
Leonard made a home here on his return trip from the west 
where he had been with a load of freight. About eighteen 
months later, in the fall of 1863 John E. Fouse made the 
second settlement. Mr. Leonard and Mr. Fouse both built 
and managed a ranch, the former on the east side of Beaver 
creek and the latter on the west side and each one about the 
same distance from the ford ot that stream, or Beaver Cross- 
ing. Roland Reed was the third settler in the precinct, com- 
ing in 1866 and purchasing the John Leonard ranch which 
he conducted until 1869 when he entered a homestead on the 
west half of the south-west quarter of section 34, John D. 
Salnave settling on the east half of the same quarter the 
same year. Thomas J. P'oster settled upon the east half 



164 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

of the south-east quarter of section 22, John A. Knerr settle'd 
on section 14, Benaja Brown on section 14, Norman Casler 
on section 22, Samuel McManagel on section 30. Williatn 
McManagel on section 28, Peter Peterson on section 28, in 
1869. Those settHng in -L- precinct in 1870 were: John 
Rumsey on the south-east quarter, John H, Waterman on 
the north-east (juarter, Gilbert and Josiah White on the 
north-west quarter of section 34; Harvey Winchel on section 
18, E. R. Johnson section 12, Paul Peterson section 20, Ab- 
ner Ross and George F. Hurlbert section 8, Martin Hanson 
section 28, Henry Cross section 12, Jessie Small and James 
Hayward on section 28, John Todd and John Hesser on the 
north-east quarter, William Shuck and Thomas Starke\^ on 
the south-east quarter, John Burket on the south-west quar- 
ter and Charles Emerson on the north-west quarter of section 
24, John Wheeler and William H. Walker on section 2, Mr. 
Stonecypher, Frank Horton, Minyard Foster and mother, 
Sarah Foster on the north half of section 26, Evans Reed 
the south-west quarter snd Elam Rumsey the south-east 
quarter of section 26, Lewis Bazinge, John Palmer and John 
Hodges on section 14, John Phelps, John Logan, Elijah W. 
Gleason, Thomas May and John Bray on section 30, Daniel 
Smith settled on school land in section 36, Paton Dillon on 
the north-east quarter, Gussie Dillon on the west half of the 
south-east quarter, Norman Casler the south-west quarter 
and Moses Eaton the north-west quarter of section 22. 
Those 1870 homesteaders whose section numbers we have 
failed to obtain are Willian W. Cross, Ra\^ Cross, Lewis 
Castle, Henry Jett and'Oren D. Culver. D. P. Sherwood 
on section 32, and Dr. Rufus D. Harvey on section 8 in 
1871. Ira McCollister homesteaded in 1872. Charles Le- 
zott settled on rail road land on section 27 in 1873, William 
Bouton settled on the south-west quarler of section 35 in 
1873. This farm was purchased is 1876 by Richard Jones 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 165 

who still resides upon it. E})h. Ausmer purchased the John 
Rumse}' homestead on the south-east quarter of section 34 
in- 1874. Other 1 870 settlers in -L- precinct were: Robert 
Walker, John Kcnnet, Benjamin Jenkins, Ransom Walker, 
Patrick Galiger, Laurence Deidle, T.J.Clark, Daniel Brown, 
Hon. Adam Seed, W. P. Ostrander and Frank E. Pierce. 
Hugh Seed and Andrew J. Seed settled on section 29, rail 
road land, in j 872. 

There was a large percentage of Union soldiers in the 
list of pioneer settlers of -L- precinct, as follows: Thomas 
J. Foster, John Burket, Charles Emerson, John A. Knerr, 
Henry Cross, William H. Walker, Ben. Brown, Ransom 
Walker, George F. Hurlburt, Moses Eaton, Paton Dillon, 
Norman Casler, John Phelj)s, John H. Waterman, lilam 
Rumsey, John Rumsey, Ephram Osmer, Richard Jones, 
Walter P. Ostrander, Minnyard Foster, Henry Jett, Dr. 
Rufus D. Harvey, (3ren D. Culver, Elijah W. Gleason, 
Lewis Castle, Frank P. Perr\^ Benjamin Jenkins, Orlando 
L Casler and Evans Reed. 

M PRECINCT PIONEER SETPLERS. 

Daniel Millspaw was the first settler in this precinct, hav- 
ing opened a ranch on the east half of the north-west quarter 
of section 2 in 1864. Columbus D. Clark and father, (j. 
Clark, and Phillip Michael settled on section 12 in 1868, 
Isaiah Michael and John Leonard on section 14 in 1868; Han- 
ley Jackson homesteaded the north half of the north-east 
quarter of section 12, Ross Nichols the south-east quarter of 
section 2, and John W. McCaulley the north-east quarter of 
section 10 in 1869. The 1870 homesteaders were: William 
Rumsey on the east half and John Osborn on the west half 
of the north-east quarter of section 2, Lafayette Millspaw on 
the south half of the north-east quarter of section 12, Jack. 
C. McClellan on the west half of the north-west quarter of 



166 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

section 2, Joshua \ anDervc^rt settled on the east half of the 
north-west quarter, Horace P Kin^; on the west half of the 
south-west ([uarter of section 14; John Maurer on the east 
half, Mrs. Richardson and two sons on the west half of the 
north-west quarter, Andrew J. SeaYcy on the north half of the 
south-east (|U.arter, |. L. S. Jackson on the south half of the 
south-east (juarter and the south half of the south-west quar- 
ter, Norman Mill on the north half of the south-west cjuarter 
of section 10; Alitchel M. (Jamj)ion, (jcorge Foltz, Benjamin 
Hunkins, Fredrick Brauer, and David Haney on section 8; 
\\\ \V. Konkright, William Reed, and D. (). Whitmore on 
section 20; Rachel T. Littler on section 22; Philij) Weinand 
on section )8; S. (). Curtis, W. T. Wiley, T. C. Deming, 
R. D. Lull and E. S. Duncan on section 30; Fred. Zastrow, 
and Fred Kramer on section 32; Edward Warner and Chas. 
Warner on section 34. (J)ther 1870 settler of -M- precinct: 
Thomas Kleckner, Jacob Sable sr., Joseph Fanning and two 
sons, Noah and Edward, John P. Martin and W. S. Beebe 
who removed and settled in -J- precinct in 1871. Hiram 
Hunkins was an 1869 homesteader; Martin Campion bought 
a farm and settled in 1871. John Eraser and John Weible 
were 1878 settlers on rail road land. 

Union soldiers in the war of the rebellion who became 
pioneer settlers in -\L precinct: W. \W. Konkright, Mitchel 
Campion, Martin Campion, Charles Warner, Hiram Hun- 
kins, William Rumsey, J. L. S. Jackson, A. J. Seavey, E.S. 
Dunkin, Philip Weinand, William Reed, D. O. Whitman. 
Thomas Kleckner. John W. McCaulley was a soldier in the 
Mexican war. 

N PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

This precinct had an earh^ settlement. Jessie R. John- 
son settled on section 35, and David Barton on section 26 . 
in 1863. Samuel Englehaujit settled on section 22 in 1865. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 167 

Martin Wambold, l);ivid Croy and Edward Walklin on sec- 
tion 32 in 1868; Thomas A. Healey homesteaded on section 
10, (jeorge Foster on section 6, VV. W. Pierce on section 
1 8, Joseph Blackburn and Peter Ogilvie on section 4 in 1869; 
Hon. Silas S. Atwood was an 1867 settler; Chris. Lezenby 
and H. A. Brisbin were 1869 settlers. Later homesteaders, 
commg in 187(3 and 1871: Hon, Robert C. Rhea, Hon. j. 
j. Endicott, William Lemmon, Stephen C. Tremper, on 
section 8, Jacob B. Courtright settled in the eastern part of 
the precinct in 1874; Irvin Stall settled on Walnut creek, 
near the old freight route in 1873; Andrew Jackson home- 
steaded the west half of the south-west (quarter of section 6 
and John Geis in the same section in 1870. 

Those of the early settlers of -N- precinct who served in 
the Union army during the war of the rebellion: Thomas 
A. Healey, Silas S. Atwood, George Foster, W^ W. Pierce, 
Joseph Blackburn, and Ste})hen C. Tremper. Hon. Robert 
C. Rhea served four years in the United States regular army 
after the war, from 1867 to 1870. 

PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

This i^recinct was favorabl}^ located for early settlement, 
being traversed by both the steam wagon road and the 
freight route. Thomas West and wife with five sons and 
one daughter were the first settlers in the precinct and per- 
haps the first in the count\^ coming in the spring of i860 
with an emigrant train on its way across the plains to the 
mountains they were so well pleased with the West Blue 
valley that they abandoned the enterprise of crossing the 
plains any farther and settled down to make a new home on 
the then wild prairies of Nebraska. As this family undoubt- 
edly experienced more of the real hardships and fearful diii- 
culties of life remote from civilization among savage Indians 
than any others of Seward county's settlers, we quote the 



168 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

following from I. M. K. Johnson's letter published in Cox's 
history in regard to them: "They had many hardships to 
endure in 1861; their log cahni, together with about all their 
world! V goods exce})t a few eattle were burned bv the In- 
dians, su])|K)sed to be Omahas disguised as Sioux. This 
was in the fall and the famil^v suffered great hardships dur- 
ing the C()ming winter. The Indians were very troublesome 
and stole much of uncle Tommy's crops of that year. With 
the exception of the families of Oren Johnson and James 
West (later settlers) who lived near, there was no settlement 
nearer than Vict()r Vitquiain, near the forks of the Blue and 
Morgans on the North Blue. Their place of trade was Ne- 
braska Citv, eighty-two miles distant." Settlement along 
the west Blue began in 1864 and homesteaders in -O- pre- 
cinct were locating from that date till along in the early sev- 
enties. James W^est, a brother of Thomas West, and Oren 
Johnson were i860 settlers on section 32; J. L. Davison set- 
tled on a homestead where the city of Milford is now located 
in 1864 and S. K. Douglas on section 12 the same year; 
Daved Barton and Jessie R. Johnson were 1864 settlers; W. 
J. Clark, Samuel J. Knglehaupt, Rev. L. Oliver and Izrael 
•M. K. Johnson settled in the vicinity of West Mills m 1865. 
The J 866 settlers were: Andrew Rouse, just south of Milford, 
William Reed, S. (i. Merriam and son George, Merriam at 
Milford, Abram Courtright, Alexander Frisby, Chas. Smith, 
settled east of the Blue, Lewis D. Laun, Joseph Stockham, 
Menry Wortendyke, Henry Br(3wn, and David Tift, came 
in the summer of i866; William H. Smiley, Lee Smiley, Ira 
(jallup, S. S. Atwood and John Atwood settled just west of 
Milford in 1866 and were the founders of "Doby Town," 
previously mentioned in this work; S. S. Atwood relocated 
later in -N- precinct; Jacob A. Wilsey and Morris R. Wilsey 
were 1868 homesteaders; later homestead settlers during the 
sixties were, Alonzo Clark, George Campbell, Jacob Camp- 



HFSTORV OF SFAVARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 169 

bell and Louis Welch; Jncob II. Culver, Dr. j. H. Wood- 
ward, D. C. McKiilip and Dr. Band were settlers in Milford 
in the late sixties; j. ]. y\ins worth and two sons, William 
and John and J. D. Stump were 1870 homsteaders. 

The earl\' settled precincts show the smaller percentage 
of soldier homesteaders, due to the fact that settlement in a 
large degree was made during the war and settlement was 
started in -O- precinct before the war. vSoldier settlers so 
far as we have been able to learn, in this precinct were: D. 
C. McKiilip, J. H. Culver, Thomas Healey, Dr. J. H. 
Woodward. 

r PRECINCT PIONEER SETTLERS. 

The i860 freight route passes through this precinct and 
the immense agricultaral advantages of the sections along 
its path invited early settlement. Victor Vifquain settled in 
1862; at the old freight route bridge, the first bridge in the 
count^^ was an excellent opening for a ranch and A.J. Wall- 
ingford took advantage of the opportunity and started one 
there in 1862; a little later in the same year Mr. Bingman 
and James Johnson made settlement; Hon. Thomas Graham 
and Philip I. Hooker settled in 1866; John J. Briggs settled 
on section 28 in 1868; Thomas H. Bishop homesteaded on 
section 10 m 1873; Elisha Kinney bought A. J. Walling- 
ford's homestead and settled upon it in 1872; Captain J. S. 
Dillenbeck was an 1878 settler; Philp J. Stolz settled in 1874. 

Of those named as early settlers, Thomas H. Bishop and 
Captain J. S. Dillenbeck and Victor Vifquain were union 
soldiers in the war of the rebellion, the latter being a Ne- 
braska volunteer and the only representative of Seward 
county in that grand throng of patriots that rallied to the 
defense of the nation and left the emblem of freedom un- 
tarnished by the foul air of deception floating above four 
million boundmen set free and over a united countrv. Col. 



170 HISTORY OF SE\\'ARD' COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Vifquain had the distinct honor of having been the first man 
to mount the fortifications at F'ort Blakely, one of the de- 
fence of Mobile, fe)r which he received due recognition and 
promotion. 

Rail Road Land and Late Pioneer Settlers, 

Following the homestead pioneers was a later class, of 
pioneers, a majority of whom came to take advantage of the 
liberal offers the H. & M. rail road company was making of 
its raw, or wild prairie land to homeseekers. This land, 
comprising every odd numbered section or half of the soil in 
Seward county, was placed upon the market early in the 
seventies at a low rate. Anci sales were made under guar- 
antee to the })urchasers by the railroad com.pany that in con- 
sideration of a certain amount of improvement in preparing 
the land for the production of crops a fair discount would be 
made upon its price. In addition to this, liberal terms of 
payments were given the purchasers, affording an opportun- 
ity to make the required improvements in advance of pa}-- 
ments, this together with the reduction in price bringing the 
improvements into double account by the advantage to the 
purchaser of making his payments from a share of the cro|)s. 

It may seem strange that the B. & M. rail road com[>any 
would practicially pav purchasers of its land for making im- 
provements u[)on it, but there was an object of interest to 
the company in havmg the thousands of acres of wild land 
in its possession transformed into productive farms. It had 
extended its road into a wild area and obligated itself to op- 
perate it, and while the company needed a portion of the 
value of the land it needed the business that only a more 
improved agricultural country could give. In fact, the open- 
ing of farms throughout Seward county in those early times 
was more to the interest of the pioneer B. & M. rail road 
com pan}' than to any other class of individuals aside from 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 171 

the settlers themselYcs. 

Consdering all of the several advantages together as a 
whole the purchas of rail road land was about as advantagi- 
OU5 as the homestead priviliges. Added to the liberal con- 
ditions upon which settlers could purchase homes, the home- 
steaders had acted as advance guards and opened up and 
prepared the way for them. Markets had been established 
and general foundations lain for future prosperitv bv the ot)en- 
ing of farms and other industries. But fully two-thirds fit 
the low priced, easy to purchas, rail road land was taken by 
the homestead settlers, many of whom purchased rail road 
land on sections adjoining their homesteads, in tracts of 
from eighty acres to a whole section and the rail road sec- 
tions in Seward county were soon off of the market having 
been sold and transformed into cultivated farms. However 
there were many homes made exclusively upon rail road 
land, but had the rail road company withheld sales "of its 
land from settlers who owned land and sold it only to those 
wishing to make homes upon it, Seward county would have 
at least a third more population than it has at this time. 

We have not been able to obtain the names of but a lim- 
ited number of the later settlers, a majority of whom were 
purchasers of rail road land. Among themi we find the fol- 
lowing named -B- precinct settlers: C. M. (Gordon, settled 
in 1875, Rev. Christian Beck, in 1877, Calvin S. Wright, in 
1879, Fredrick Rurup. in 1887, and Harvey Moler in 1888. 
Christian Schaal was an 1880 settler in -C- precinct, John 
M. Merrill in -I- precinct the same year, Osceola A. Shaw 
1885; P. P. Hershberger settled in -J- prebinct in 1876, B. 
W. Houdersheldt in 1878, Albert Procknow in '81 and Jacob 
Webber in "84; E. N. Wingfield settled in -K- precmct in 
1874, later came Beech Downs, Jerome Aldrich, Jacob Geis, 
John Evans, and Irvin Stall; late settlers in -L- precinct: 
Charles Lezotte, Burt Arthur, Thomas Wilson, David Rol- 



172 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

and, Forest Roland, Tillis Roland, J. S. Stonecypher, John 
Boicourt, James Miller, Peter Johnson, Fred. Tepner, Carl 
Imig, R. B, Richmond, Richard Jones, Jas.M. Smiley, John 
W. Smith, E. L. Blanchard,John Cooper and Patrick Smith. 
In -M- precinct John Kraser settled on section 19 and John 
Weible on section 17 in 1878, Fred. Rodeman, Mike Ro- 
gowsk^^ and Jacob Sable sr. , were 1880 settlers, ,Daniel 
Blanchard bought and settled on the Ed. Warner homestead 
in 1885, W. A. Wilsey settled on section 11, rail road land 
in 1884 and VVm. H. Mygatt bought a farm of homesteaded 
land on section 2 the same year. In -O- precinct Willam 
W. Miller settled on section 9 in 1874, John Stanfer settled 
on section 5 in 1878, Valentine Springer in 1877, Fred. Pet- 
schek in the same year and Chas. H. Adams in 1883. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE MIRAGE. 

We feel that a history of any portion of the western plains 
would be incomplete without some mention of this strange 
phenomenon, and again we feel our inability to do justice in 
a pen picti^e of its grandure as it appeared to many Seward 
county pioneers. We remember away back in the remote 
past that our good old mother frequently mentioned the great 
"seven wonders of the world" and we supposed, and believe 
she did also, that the equal of any one of them would never 
be known. If we remember right they consisted of the rain- 
bow, the ocean tide, Niagara Falls, the mammoth cave, the 
pyramids of Egypt, the natural bridge in Virginia and the 
aurora borealis or "northern lights." But the western plains 
with their greatest natural "wonder" had not then been 
known and considered. In looking upon the scenes of one of 
those mirages a person is viewing the grandest panorama 
of the world, as its appearance is only periodical and while 
it may be visible one day it may not be seen again in the 
same locality for weeks or months, depending upon the con- 
dition of the atmosphere. The impression made upon the 
mind of one who beholds this mystery is that the earth has 
sank, leaving a great valley between two hills. Standing up- 
on the brink of one of these imaginary hills a person may look 
across and see well known cities upon the opposite hill 
which are from twenty to forty or more miles distant while 
the valley is seemingly not more than two miles wide. This 
is a direct forward and slightly upward view of the spectacu- 
lar appearance and is generally the first curiosity which at- 
tracts attention, but a glance down through the valley the 
second and not by any means the least amazing prodigv 
IS plainly apparant. Farm dwelling houses, barns, teams 



174 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

working in the fields and travelmg upon the roads ma}' be 
plainly seen throughout the entire valley. 

We resided on the Evans Keed homestead in -L- pre- 
cinct during the 3'ear ot 1876, one half mile west and one and 
one-half miles north of Beaver Crossing, which might be 
supposed to be in proximity to the West Blue valley, but 
while the place was on high ground, there was no view from 
it of any part of the valley therefore it was in no way ac- 
countable for the misterious appearing pictures which ap- 
peared occasionally throughout the landscape covering that 
area. Between that place and the city of Friend, eleven 
miles distant, Exeter twenty miles and Fairmont twenty- 
seven miles distant, is an ordinary tract of Nebraska land 
surface. There are no valleys except the West Blue not 
over one-half to three-quarters of a mile wide at any point, 
and every one of the three cities is located ui)on low and 
level ground, but notwithstanding these facts, we have stood 
in the dooryard of that homestead several times in the early 
part of the day at various times and viewed all of those cities 
and recognized their well known elevators, railway depots, 
and busmess houses as plainly as though not more than two 
miles distant, and at the same time saw well known farm 
houses, barns, fields, and traveled roads throughout the im- 
maginary valley which was rounded out from the two given 
pomts like some of the great canons or basins of the rocky 
mountain regions. These things that we witnessed m those 
early times are fast vanishing from the memory of those who 
beheld their grandure. While it is possible that they may 
still appear from the same points of view at about the old 
time intervales, it is probable that they are among the wild 
west scenes that have disappeared as a result of the changed 
condition of the country which is now covered with obstruct- 
ions to such views with growths of timber where it was in 
pioneer davs one great, boundless prairie. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

DEATH OF Seward County Pioneers^ 
THE VOICELESS. 

We count the broken lyres that rest 

Where the sweet wailing sing:ers slumber, 
But o'er their silent sister's breast 

The wild flowers who will stoop to number. - 

A few can touch the magic string, 

And noisy Fame is proud to win them — 
Alass for those that never sing. 

But die with all their music in them! 

Nay, grieve not for the dead alone 

Whose song has told their heart's sad story — 

Weep for the voiceless, who have known 
The cross without the crown of glory! 

Not where J.eucadian breezes sweeo 

o'er Sappho's memory-haunted billow, 
But where the glistening night dews weep 

On nameless sorrow's churchyard pillow. 

O hearts that break and give no sign 

Save whitening lip and faded tresses. 
Till Death pours out his longed-for wine 

Slow dropped from Misery's crushing presses. 

If singing breath or echoing chord 

To every hidden phang were given. 
What endless melodies were poured. 

As sad as earth, as sweet as heaven! 

— Oliver Wendel Holmes. 

We are sorrv that we have not been able to give a com- 
plete hst of Seward county pioneers and only a partial list of 
those who have passed to their final rest. We have searched 



176 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, Nf:BRASKA. 

every available record and avenue of information, but have 
met considerable disappointment The pioneer settlers were 
attached to each other in a much stronger tie than that of 
mere neighbors and it would have been in line with the gen- 
eral thought of the day and age to have formed pioneer so- 
cieties for the purpose of preserving the memories of events, 
as well as the life and death of its members. But what we 
have been able to collect of the sadest events in the closing 
scenes of pioneer residents we present to the friends and the 
general public, trusting that it will be accepted by all as the 
best we can do at the present late date in that direction. 

While there are not a very great number of the early 
settlers whose passing may come in line with the sentiments 
embodied in the foregoing poetry there were a small per- 
centage of them who closed their eyes to the scenes sur- 
rounding them before they had realized the grand results of 
the sacrifices they had made to open the new country and 
place it upon a plain of civilized progress. 

First Death and First Coronor"s Inquest in Seward County. 

FATHER DUNWAY 
As he was familiary known and for whom there is no other name re- 
corded, settled on a homestead on section 3, in -G- precinct in 1864. He 
had made some improvements upon his claim, hoping to make his family 
contented and comfortable, expecting them to arrive from the east in the 
near future. His neighbors were few and far apart, but visited him at odd 
times and especially Grandfather Imly, an aged gentleman who spent a 
little time with him frequently. One day in the month of September, 1864 
Mr. Imly made one of his customary calls at the Dunaway home but found 
it alone. He waited someti.ne for his friend's return, but becoming alarm- 
ed at his continued absence, cemmenced a search, resulting in the discovery 
of his lifeless body laying in a patch of grass which showed evident signs of 
a struggle, having been wallowed down to quite an extent. The old gentle- 
man immediately hastened home and gave the alarm, his son, David Imly 
mounting a horse rode to a field, some distance away, where several neigh- 
bors were putting up hay. A short consultation was held and as W. VV. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. . 177 

Cox, one of the number present, v\'as a justice of the peace it was decided 
that he should act as coroner, but the difficulty of finding enough persons 
for jurors confronted them. Finley R. F. Gale, being special constable 
with power to summon jurors, suggested that they proceed to the Morgan 
settlement where he would complete a jury. With exciting hurry they 
proceeded to the Morgan settlement where the jury was quickly made up 
consisting of David Imly, sr., U. P. Imly, William Imly, Joseph Imly, R. 
T. Gale, Job Reynolds, "Fhomas Morgan, William Morgan and W. W. 
Cox. They reached the scene of death just as the sun was sinking behind 
the western horrizon and with solemn faces and uplifted hands were imme- 
diately sworn as jurors. The jury soon reached a verdict that the deceased 
came to his death from the effects of cramp colic. 

It being evident that the deceased had been dead some time a rough 
board coffin was constructed of lumber taken from the cabin and the re- 
mains of Father Dunaway were laid to rest beneath an oak tree by the 
light of the misty moon beams. His goods and chatties were properly 
cared for and turned over to the sorrowing wife upon her arrival. 

CHRISTOPHER G. W. CLARK 

Who with his wife, Rachel Clark and several children, moved from 
Coles county, Illinois, to Seward county, Nebraska in 1867, settled up- 
on a homestead two and one-half miles south-east of Beaver Crossing. Mr. 
Clark enjoyed his new home for the short period of ten years, being called 
to a brighter home in Heaven, March 20, 1877. He left a wife and sev- 
eral grown sons and daughters — the oldest son, Columbus D. Clark, also 
an early homesteader in the same section with his father, moved to Cali- 
fornia, after a few years residence on his homestead, where he with his wife 
died about 1879, leaving two small children, a son and daughter. Thomas 
J. Clark, next younger son, also a Seward county homesteader, made a trip 
to California after the orphan babies, bringing the smaller one the entire 
distance in a hand basket. The wife, Rachel Clark, survived her husband 
a little more than thirty years, passing to her final rest November 24, 1907. 

One of the two children who was brought from California, the brother 
being the oldest, was married several years ago, and Rosa, the "hand- 
basket" passenger is now Mrs. Clarence Harling. 

HENRY BRIDENBALL 

An 1873 settler in -L- precinct died in 1892, aged 82 years and 4 
months, leaving a wife, three sons and three daughters, Henry Jr., Fred., 
George, Lizzie, Amelia and Minnie. 



178 HISTORY OF SFAVARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

JOHN 1). SALNAVE. 

Father Salnave was a native of Chemung county, New York where he 
was horn July 1st 1814, and where he was married to jane S. Reed in the 
year 1842. Moved to Seward county, Nebraska, in 1869 and settled on a 
homestead in section 34, -L- precinct. He passed to his eternal home in 
Heaven, March 24th, 1880, aged 66 years, 8 months and 23 days. His 
wife, Jane S. Salnave, followed him to rest at her home in Beaver Crossing 
Friday, August 1st, 1890, aged 73 years, 1 month and 5 days. She was 
born at Bainbridge, New York, June 27, 1817. They left to mourn their 
departure, two sons and six daughters, B. h . Salnave of North Chemung, 
New York, John G., Annett G., wife of William Rumsey, Lydia M-., wife 
of J. H. Waterman, (the author) Pamelia Cirace, all of Beaver Crossing, the 
latter being now the wife of Fdward Lanning, of Lexington, Nebraska, 
Lucy A., wife of O. C. Fish, of iowa, Margaret J., wife of Paton Uillon, 
of Alma, Nebraska, and Lenora, wife of Christain Maurer, of Farnam, Ne- 
braska. One son, Francie, preceded his parents to rest in New York state 
when ten years old. John G. Salnave, victim of a fatal accident which 
will raceive notice further along in this work, died at Beaver Crossing, 
Fuesday, September 1st, 1891, aged 39 years, 8 months and 4 days; B. F. 
Salnave dieing at Elmira, New York, September 21. 1914. 

WILLIAM RUM.SEV 

Who settled on a homestead near Beaver Crossing in 1870, died at his 
honiie in that village, February 18, 1902, leaving a wife, three sons and one 
daughter. His wife, Annett G. Rumsey, followed him to rest February 16 
1913, aged 68 years, 7 months and 23 days. 

J. B. COURTRIGHT, 
An early pioneer settler near Milford, died at the home of his son in-N- 
precinct, April 1, 1901. 

H()N. SILAS SCOTT ATWOUl) 

Was born in Preble county, Ohio, March 12, 1842, his parents moving 
to Washington county Iowa, when he was eighteen months old, where he 
grew to manhood. He settled on a homestead two miles west of Milford 
in 1867, later moving to his final home south-east of Beaver Crossing 
where he resided till the end of life. He was twice elected to represent his 
county in the state legislature, first in 1902 and again in 1904. He ditd at 
his home at 12:30 a. m., April 8, 1906 of heart failure. His last moments, 
when he fully realized that his life was drawing to a close, were passed with 
the same uncomplaining fearlessness that seemed to characterize his whole 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 179 

life and after gently telling his wife that he could not live he quietly closed 
his eyes in that sleep that "knows no waking." We were personally ac- 
quainted with Comrade Atwood and can truly say that Comrade Thomas 
A. Healey voiced our estimation of him when he said of him: "He was a 
quiet, inofensive soldier and citizen — one of (jod's noblemen." 

GEORGE A. KILLPATRICK 

A pioneer settler at Beaver Crossing in the early seventies where he 
was engaged in 1". H. I isdale's store for a long time as a clerk, afterwards 
taught the village school and other schools of the vicinity — married Miss 
W ing and shortly after moved to Seward. \\ as several times elected 
county surveyor. Passed to his final rest at a hospital in Crete, Nebraska, 
in 1902, leaving a wife and small children. 

JUDGE J. K. COREY 

A pioneer settler,died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. F. T. Wing, 
in Lincoln, Nebraska, Wedensday, May 21, 1913, aged 87 years. Mr. 
Corey served three terms as county judge of Saline county, and was for sev- 
eral years a practicing attorney at Beaver Crossing. Seward county. 

STEAD.MAN G. MERRJA.M 

Settled in Milford in 1866 and was for several years a pioneer merchant 
of that village, passed to his rest at the home of his son George, in Seward, 
May 21, 1904, aged 90 years, one month and 24 days. Mr. Merriam re- 
tired from business a few years prior to his death and moved to Seward 
where he spent the remainder of his advanced life. 

HON. DANIEL C. McKILLIP 

Seward county's first attorney at law, who began his professional career 
at Milford in 1868 died at his home in Seward, March 17, 1904. Mr. 
McK-illip was one of Seward county's most able attorneys, highly respected 
by all citizens of the county. Served two terms in the state legislature, 
from 72 to '76. 

DANEORTII BROWN 

Settled in Beaver Crossing in 1872, died at his home in that village in 
1899, aged 92 years. His wife, Mrs. Jane Brown, died in October 1902 
while on a visit in the New England states. I'he remains were brought 
home to Beaver Crossing and laid to rest by the side of her aged husband. 
One grown daughter, Abbie Brown preceded them to rest, dicing shortly 
after their settlement in their new home. 



180 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

GRANDFATHER AND GRANDMOTHER NICHOLS, 

Father and mother of Ross and Uriah L. Nichols, came from New 
York state in 1872 and settled on a portion of Ross Nichols' farm where 
they built a home which is now one of the very few remaining pioneer 
residences of Seward county. It stands in the south half of the village of 
Beaver Crossing and is known as the Maule property. These two aged 
people came to a new country to live their last days near their children. 
They both passed to rest in 1876. 

ROSS NICHOLS 

An 1869 homesteader settled upon a quarter section upon which is now 
located a portion of Beaver Crossing where he errected a home which is 
perhaps the oldest frame house in Seward county, in use now as the Beaver 
Crossing hospital. Mr. Nichols died at his home, March 16, 1892, aged 
68 years leaving a wife, one brother and one sister. One daughter, Ella 
Nichols preceded him to rest in 1875, aged 15 years, 4 months and 1 day. 

URIAH L. NICHOLS 
An 1869 homesteader just over the Seward and York county line in the 
latter county, moved to Beaver Crossing where he resided about twenty- 
five years where his wife died in 1911 when he moved to Omaha to live 
with his son, William where he died March 28, 1915, aged 85 years. One 
daughter, the wife of Thomas Kerby preceded her parents to rest by several 
years and one son, William, remains to mourn their loss. 

HORACE P. SEYMOUR 
For many years a resident of Beaver Crossing, died at the home of his 
daughter, Mrs. Ross Nichols, in that village, September 16, 1908, aged 88 
years. Mr. Seymour was a pioneer railway engineer, having served as 
such several years before the war of the rebellion. 

ELDER W. G. KEENE 

who bought and settled upon the W. J. Thompson ranch farm in -K- pre- 
cinct in 1872 died at his home there June 16, 1876, leaving a wife, one son 
and two daughters. His wife, Harriet Seymour Keene, remarried to Mr. 
Edwards, an early homesteader of the locality, shortly moving to Oklahoma 
where she resided till the spring 1914 when she returned to Beaver Cross- 
ing, dieing at the home of her niece, Mrs. Ross Nichols, June 16, 1914, 

aged 84 years. 

CHAS. C. LEZOTTE 

Settled on rail road land in -L- precinct m 1873, died at his home in 



HISTORY OF SFAVARD COLfXTV, XEBRy\SKA. 181 

Reaver Crossing, April 27th, 1905, ag:ed 76 years, 9 months and 10 days. 
Mr. Lezotte was born in Clinton county, N. Y., July 17, 1828. \\ as 
married to Mary S. I>ittle, January 1st, 1849. They came to Seward 
county, Nebraska in 1874 and settled upon rail road land in -L- precinct 
where they resided two years when thsy exchanged their farm tor James 
Hayward's homestead in the same precinct upon which they resided until a 
short time privious to' his death thev retired from the farm and moved lo 
Keaver Crossing. He left a wife and several sons and daughters. 

S. R. DOUGLAS 
A homestead settler near Milford in the sixties and for twenty-five years 
a well known money loaner at Seward, died at his home in that city, Mon- 
day morning, December 18, 1905, aged 77 years. He left a faithful and 
loving wife to mourn his departure. Although Mr. Douglas wanted as 
high a rate of interest as the law allowed him, the writer, as well perhaps 
as many other citizens of Seward county, remembers many accommodating 
acts in his dealings and settlements for borrowed money, and he must be 
regarded as a benefactor by those who applied to him in times of necessity. 

LYMAN F. MORGAN 

Settled on a homestead in -E- precinct in 1870, near where the village 
of Utica was aftervv'ards located, and died at his home June 14, 1904. 
-Nancy A. Morgan, his widowed wife, followed him to rest May 10. 1915. 
They left two sons, Eugene D. and l"* red. B. Morgan, both residing near 
the old homestead. 

ELIJAH GLEASON 

Who settled on a homestead in -L- precinct in 1866, died at Milford 
January 20, 1915. Mis. Gleason, his life partner, preceded him to rest at 
Beaver Crossing, March 29, 1802. 

ROLAND REED, 

An 1866 settler at Beaver Crossing, died at his home, Februarv 8, 1884, 
aged 65 years and 7 days. Jane Reed, widowed wife of Roland Reed, fol- 
lowed him to rest at the homestead home, October 1, 1888. They were 
both born in Pennsylvania, he February 6, 1819, and she September 3, 
1820. Ihey came to Seward coiinty and engaged in keeping a ranch for 
three years, settling upon a homestead in 1869. During his ranch life Mr. 
Reed was appointed and served as Beaver Crossing's first postmaster. They 
left six children, three sons and three daughters, one son John preceded 
them to rest at Beaver Crossing, Noveniber 29, 1875, aged twenty-eight years. 



182 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

HON. E. C. CARNES 

Died at his hame in Seward, Friday, March 22, 1895. Mr. Carries 
was known by all early settlers of Seward county as one of the first grain 
buyers of Seward, locating there soon after the advent of the rail road. He 
was a man prominent in business and also in politics. Although only a 
little past middle life at the time of his death he had gained an advanced 
position as an able statesman. He served as a member of the state consti- 
tutional convention in 1875; was the first state senator from Seward county 
and was twice elected lieutenant governor of Nebraska. 

JUDGE J. W. DUPIN 

Settled on a homestead northwest of Seward in 1869, moved to Seward 
in the early seventies and began his business career as a clerk in the (jrange 
Store, a popular institution for a short period. He later served as deputy 
county clerk for Thomas Graham; was twice elected county clerk, served 
one term as Seward's postmaster and was county judge at the time of his 
death, March 9, 1902. In our meetings with Judge Dupin, mostly on 
business occasions, we found him an admirably pleasant and agreable man, 
and his untimely passing away so suddenly and unexpected brought great 
sorrow to us as it did to all Seward county people who knew him. He left 
a wife and children. 

A. R. WINSOR, 

Who settled on a homestead in -K- precinct in 1869, died at the home 
of his son, J. L. Winsor, three miles east of Beaver Crossing, March 20, 
1902, aged 88 years and 23 days. His wife died in 1898. They were the 
parents of ten children, five of whom preceded them to rest. 

JUDGE GEORGE W. LOWLEY 
\Vho settled on a Seward county homestead in the sixties, and later be- 
coming one of Seward's ablest attorneys at law, practicing his profession 
in that city for more than a quarter of a century, died suddenly, Thursday 
morning, March 27, 1902, leaving a wife to mourn his departure. 

ELIJAH K. DUNBAUGH, 

Seward's first druggist, who opened a drug store in that city early in the 
seventies, which he conducted several years, died at his home, Wednesday, 
April 24, 1895, aged 71 years. Mr. Dunbaugh had been in poor health 
for several years. 

DR. J. H. WOODWARD, 

One of Seward county's pioneer physicians, died at his home in Seward, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 183 

October 8, 1902. He was horn in Indiana in 1835, came to !r"e\vard 
county in 1871, and settled at iMiIfoid where he practiced his profession 
for two years when he moved to Seward. He was an able physician and 
enterprising citizen. He left a v^ife and grown children. 

JOHN CATTLE, 

Vice president of the State Bank of Seward, died in England, August 
12, 1902. Mr. Cattle had been in ill health for some time and together 
with his wife made a trip to England to visit friends, in hopes that a change 
ar.d rest from business cares would aid in restoring his health. He was a 
popular and successful business man and in his death the city and county 
sustained an inestimable loss. 

E. N. WINGFIELD, 

\\ ho bought and settled upon the Widow Wilson homestead in -K- 
precinct in 1874, died at his home September 9, 1879, aged 74 years. Mr. 
Wingfield left a wife and four daughters to mourn the loss of a kind hus- 
band and father. The deceased was a southern man who lived in the war 
zone during the rebellion, and his sympathies with the cause of that move- 
ment were so strong and fearlessly expressed that his loyal neighbors' sus- 
picions were aroused to such an extent that they preferred charges against 
him for "bushwhacking" Union soldiers and he was arrested and confined in 
a Urited States military prison nine months. While living near him for a 
period of two years, we leaaned to know him and feel safe in saying that 
his great, tender and sympathetic heart never permitted him to harm a boy 
in blue. He was in truth "one of God's noblemen." 
JOSEPH F. M. DIMERY, 

A pioneer settler on a farm near Beaver Crossing, died at his home in 
that village, Saturday, April 18, 1903. Mr. Dimery entered the mercantile 
business with Thomas I'idyman in Beaver Crossing in 1873 in which he 
continued several years. He later bought the flouring mill at that place 
of W. J. Thompson, conducting it for some time, finally selling it to 
George Winand he returned to the business of farming. Upon the com- 
pletion of the F. E. & M. V. rail road to Beaver Crossing he became in- 
terested in the State Bank of that place. He built a store building and con- 
ducted a general mercantile store for several years, being closely identified 
with the business of the village for twenty-five years. 

SAMUEL MANNING, 
A pioneer settler of Seward county, died at the home of a son in Seward 
Thursday, April 27, 1905, aged 82 years, 5 months and 13 days. 



184 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, xNEBRASKA. 

CLAUDIUS JONES 

Seward county's first banker, died suddenly at his home in Seward, 
Wednesday morning:, November 3, 1886. Mr. Jones had apparently been 
in his usual health up to almost the moment of his death. He had risen 
at his usual hour, and after taking breakfast started to go to town, but 
meeting his son, Harry F. Jones, returned with him to the house where he 
was stricken down, dieing instantly. He had spent twenty-three years 
in the banking business at Seward and was president of the first national 
bank of that city at the time of his death. His wife, Harriet 1. Jones fol- 
lowed him to rest at her home in Seward, July 18, 190.3. 

ALEX. II. VANCE, 

A pioneer resident of Milford, an able farmer and well known able 
corres' ondent for democratic newpapers under the name of 'Old Stallwart," 
died at his- home April 21, 1905. Mr. Vance was above the average dem- 
ocratic writer and did more good for his party and the public than any other 
writer of that party in Seward county. 

J. M. FLETCHER, 

A pioneer settler at Seward, died at his home in that city, January 15, 
1896. We quote the following in regard to Mr. Fletcher from the Weekly 
Review of Beaver Crossing of January 16th, '96: "Comrade J. M. Fletcher 
of Seward died about two o'clock yesterday afternoon. Mr. Fletcher has 
visited our village several times, and his kind face and genial ways will be 
remembered by everybody in this vicinity. He was an able speaker and 
never permitted an audience to get tired waiting to hear something. He 
was an old soldier and could illustrate the tr\ing scenes of the civil war, as 
well as the general conditions of the country previous to the war with an 
accuracy to revive the memories of all who witnessed the tragic events. 
Comarde Fletceher was a great sufferer from injuries received in the battle 
of Pittsburgh Landing." 

SAMUEL BROWN, 
One of the earliest settlers of Seward county, who came and located on 
a homestead in -J- precinct m the sixties, residing on the same for many 
years and finally retiring and moving to Milford, died at his home in that 
village Sunday, October 25, 1896, aged 80 years. 

A. V. SKILLMAN, 

An 1865 homesteader in Seward county, died at his home in Seward, 
Tuesday mcrning, July 22. 1902. He resided upon a farm for many years. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NKBRASKA. 185 

finally moving to the city and engaging in business from which he retired 
on account of failing health a few months previous to his death. 

JAMES V. PRICE 
Settled in -N- precinct in 1869, and died at the home of (jeorge Foster 
in that precinct, September 26, 1895, aged 74 years. Mr. Price had an in- 
teresting military record. He was a soldier in the United States regular 
army from 1842 to 1847, serving through the Mexican war. In 1861, at 
the outbreak of the war of the rebellion he enlisted in Company I, Second 
New York volunteers and served until the close of the strife. He was not 
married, but left several mourning relatives and friends. 

MRS. .MARY A. RoBSON CHAMBERS, 

Aged 91 years, 6 months and 12 days, died at the home of her daughter, 
Mrs. C. L. Slonecker, in Seward, Monday, August 27, 1906. She was 
born and married in England and ten children were born to the union. 
1 hey came to Seward county and settled upon a homestead four and a half 
miles south-east of Seward in 1869. Her husband died in 1882. 

CHRISTOPHER TURNER, 
A pioneer settler in the city of Seward, died at his home, November 20, 
1905, aged 72 years, 2 months and 19 days. Mr. Turner was married at 
Seward to Matilda Robinson in October 1879, where he with his wife 
spent their married life, having born to them eight children. The wife and 
children were left to mourn his departure. 

SARAH P^OSTER, 

An 1870 homesteader in -L- precinct, died at her home in Beaver 
Crossing, Tuesday morning, November 28, 1893, aged 80 years and seven 
days. Mrs. Foster built the first frame house in -L- precinct which was 
occupied as her home for many years. She was the mother of several sons 
and one daughter. 

SAMUEL LONG 

And wife settled upon a homestead in -H- precinct in 1863; he died in 
1887, aged 75 years while she remained to the advanced age of 93 years, 
dieing April 27, 1916. Her maiden name was Permilia A. Rodgers. She 
was married to Samuel Long, March 1,1843 in their native state, Kentucky. 
While Mrs. Long was one among the earliest homestead settlers in Seward 
county she will retain the enviable record of having lived a longer time on 
her pioneer homestead than any other of the early settlers, having spent 
forty-three years upon it, from settlement until called to her eternal home. 



186 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

HOADLY G. HOSFORD 
Settled on a homestead in -D- precinct in 1869 where he resided until 
the late nineties when he retired from the farm and moved to Seward. He 
died August 2, 1903 leaving a wife, one daughter and four sons. 

WARREN BROWN 
Settled on a homestead north-east of Seward in 1866 where he resided for 
thirty-eight years, moving from the farm and settling in Germantown in 
1892 where he passed to his final rest May 24, 1904. 

WILLIAM SCHULTZ 

Forty years a resident of Seward, died at his home in that city, August 
9, 1915, aged 76 years, 9 months and 4 days. Mr. Schultz was a dealer 
in boots and shoes in the city of Seward for many years and was well 
known by a majority of citizens throughout the county. He left to mourn 
his loss a wife and several sons and daughters. 

NEWTON G. EVANS 

An 1868 homesteader in Seward county died January 13, 1911. His 
wife, Emily J. Evans, who came to Nebraska in 1850 with her parents and 
settled in Marshall county, survived her husband until June 7, 1915 when 
she followed him to rest, aged 65 years, 8 months and 4 days. They were 
the parents of one son an three daughters who survived them. 
GEORGE F. liURLBURT 

Settled on a homestead in -L- precinct in 1870 and was for several 
years a prominent figure in the affairs of his town and locality. His wife 
died at their homestead home, August 7, 1877, aged 44 years, 8 months 
and 19 days. He moved to Utica in 1881 and engaged in the ininking 
business in which he continued until the close of life, June 2, 1915, aged 
85 years, 7 months and 7 days. 

THOMAS TIDYMAN, 

A pioneer settler in Seward ccunty, died at his home in Beaver Crossing 
September 26, 1915, aged 75 years, 5 months and 2 days. Mr. Tidyman 
engaged in the mercantile business in Beaver Crossing with J. F. M. Dim- 
ery, under the firm name of Tidyman & Dimery successors to Edward 
Nye who conducted the store opened in connection with the mill by Mr. 
Smith in 1872. They took charge of the store in 1874 and continutd the 
business about eleven years when they sold their interest and good will to 
Ernest VanSkike. Deceased left a wife to mourn the death of a kind and 
loving husband. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 187 

JOHN EVANS Sr. 
\\'ho settled on rail road land in -K- precinct in 1877, died at the home 
of his daughter, Mrs. Anna E. VanSkike, at Long Beach, California where 
he was spending the winter, January 9, 1916, aged 83 years. His wife, 
Louise Evans, preceded him to rest July 23, 1901, also two daughters, Mamie 
Caulder, who died in 1909 and Emma Johnson who died in 1914, four 
sons and one daughter surviving him. Mr. Evans was engaged in the 
furniture and implement business with V. H. Roland, under the firm name 
of Evans & Roland in Beaver Crossing at the time of his death. 

JOHN WHEELER 

And family settled on a homestead in section two, -L- precinct in 1870 
where they resided for many years, finally moving to Florida where he died 
March 31, 1900, aged eighty-seven years, one month an nineteen days. 
His wife. Electa W heeler, died in 1891. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler were 
both born in the state of N^-w York — he February 2, 1813 and she May 
31, 1819. Several daughters survived them. 

GEORGE F. DICKMAN 
For more than thirty years a resident of Seward county, died suddenly 
Monday night, March 5, 1916. Death was the result of a stroke of apo- 
plexy which came upon him wh le at the dinner table Sunday noon, follow- 
ed Sunday night by a second stroke from which he did not regain con- 
sciousness. He was sixty-one years of age. Mr. Dickman was in the 
implement business in Seward for many years and was active in business 
up till the date of his death. For thirty-five years he was a prominent fig- 
ure at state fairs. For twenty-three years prior to '04 he was speed clerk 
of the state fair races, and following the death of Ed Mclntyre that year 
he was appointed to a place on the board of managers of the state fair asso- 
ciation, and was for several of the later years treasurer for the society. 

JOHN W. MCCAULLEY 

And wife, Eliza Mable McCaulley, were among the first pioneer set- 
tlers of -M- precinct, homesteading the north-east quarter of section ten in 
1869 where they spent many years of pioneer life. They retired from the 
farm and moved to Beaver Crossing in the early nineties where she passed 
to her final rest November 27, 1898. Mr. M:Caulley remained for twelve 
years when he answered the call to follow and meet her and other loved 
ones gone before. He was eighty-five years of age at the time of his death 
and was one of the iew remaining U.S. soldiers in the mexican war. Three 
sons and two daughters survived them. 



188 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

PETER OGILVIE, 

An 1868 homesteader in -N- precinct, died at his home in -L- precinct, 
February 17, 1897, aged 69 years. After several years residence upon his 
homestead Mr. Ogilvie relocated upon a farm in -K- precinct, later buying 
the T. H. Tisdale farm in ■ L- precinct where he resided at the time of his 
death. His widowed wife remained at the late home until suddenly sum- 
moned to her heavenly home, April 4, 1901. 1 hey left two sons and one 
daughter, one daughter, Mrs. John Woods ef Seward having died several 
years previous. 

JOHN T. GODDING 

Settled upon a homestead just west of the Seward and York county line 
in 1869, moving from thereto Haddam, Kansas in 1880, and relocating at 
Beaver Crossing in 1890 where he engaged in the restaurant and market 
gardening business several years. He died at the home of his son in Fair- 
bury, Nebraska, P'ebruary 11, 1913, his wife, Rachel Streeter (joddmg hav- 
ing preceded him to her heavenly home about two years. They left three 
sons to mourn their departure. 

MRS. F. B. TIPTON. 

The citizens of Seward were shocked Sunday morning, June 24 1906 
by the announcement that Mrs. Frank B. Tipton had been found dead in 
bed that morning, the result of heart failure. She had been in her usual 
health the evening before and had planned with her husband to do some 
work in the flower garden the next morning. When he went to her room 
about five o'clock in the morning he found her dead. She was reposing 
with her head resting upon one arm, her eyes closed, and had apparently 
passed away while asleep without a struggle. Harriet, their little daughter, 
just past five years old, nestled at her mother's back fast asleep, unconsious 
of the sad event which had taken place. She was a daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. Cladius Jones aud came to Seward in 1873 with her parents. Her 
death wa§ similar to that of her father, previously mentioned. She left to 
mourn her untimely death, a husband, two sons, one daughter, one brother 
and two sisters. 

JCSEPH JONES, 

A pioneer homesteader in -D- precinct in the early seventies and after- 
wards engaged in the mercantile business in the village of Utica and later 
beca.ne vice president of the Utica Bank, died at his home, April 23, 1905. 
Mr. lones was a progressive business man, well liked by all who knew him 
and his death was a great loss to Utica. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 139 

WILLIAM J.THOMPSON, 

One of the pioneer ranchmen of Seward county, opened a ranch at the 
Walnut creek crossing of th'^ freight and steam wagon routes, in 1864, and 
was a member of the Hrst county board of Seward county commissioners, 
died at his home in Beaver Crossing, July 25, 1895. He left a wife, two 
sons and one daughter. Mr. Thompson was well known by many people 
in the south portion of Seward and York counties and the north portion of 
Saline and Filmore counties as having catered to their needs in the manage- 
ment for several years of the flouring mill at Beaver Crossing. This mill 
was a pioneer enterprise which was not entirely a financial success, the dam 
being constructed upon a bed of quick sand would wash out every time 
there was a freshet and high water. 1 here is but little doubt that this con- 
dition was well known by Mr. Smith after he had built the mill and when 
he sold it to the latter as he did not conduct the business but a very short 
time after opening it and the sale of it was a surprise to its patrons. How- 
ever with all the unfavorable conditions Mr. Thompson, with the expense 
of many times rebuilding his dam and placing plank foundation under the 
mill and a portion of the mill race, continued to grind out peoples grists. 
He finally sold the mill to J. F. M. Dimery as previously mentioned. But 
Mr. Th(,mpson will hold a place in the memory of early settlers as the 
pioneer miller who patiently sacrificed more good money to maintain a 
business of public benefit than any other man of the time in Seward county. 
He had the distinction of having served in the United States navy during 
what in termed "the Mexican War," which occurred in 1846. 

Margaret J. Thompson, wife of Wm. J. "Fhompson, remained after his 
death for a period of eighteen years, reaching the age of 88 years. She died 
Thursday, September 18, 1913 leaving two sons and one daughter, one of 
the former, B. F., or Frank, followed his mother to rest September 30, 
1913, being sick with pneumonia at the time of her death he failed to re- 
cover. One daughter, Liticia, wife of Horatio Reed, preceded her parents 
to her eternal home by several years. 

JOHN KNOBBS AND WIFE 

Pioneer settlers in Seward county, coming in 1873 they spent their re- 
maining years as residents of the county. Mrs. Knobbs passed to her rest 
January 23, 1911, aged 74 years, 2 months and 21 days. Mr. Knobbs 
closed his eyes to the scenes of this world and passed on to meet his wife, 
November 3, 1915, aged 84 years, 3 months and 3 days. 

BENJAMIN WALKER 

An 1870 settler in -O- precinct died October 20, 1879. Mr. Walker 
It'ft a wife to mourn his early departure. 



190 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

HECTOR MCCLEAN 

Was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, October 24, 1833; came to Canada 
when three years old and from there to Seward county, Nebraska, in 1870 
where he resided until called to his eternal home. He died at Dunning, 
Nebraska, December 29, 1915, aged 82 years, 2 months and 5 days. He 
was married in Canada to Jane Whitton with whom he passed along the 
troubled journy of life for fifty-nine years. The wife, two daughters and 
one son, Mrs. Donisthorp, of Geneva; Mrs. Garland, of Seward, and Allen 
McLean of Dunning, survived him. 

HON. AUAM SEED, 

A pioneer settler in -L- precinct, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. 
L. F. Cottrel, in York, Nebraska, April 19, 1916, aged seventy-three years 
Mr. Seed was elected to the Nebraska state legislature in 1890. Three 
brothers, Hugh, Andrew J. and Adam Seed were pioneer settlers in -L- 
precinct. The two former were not married; the elder one, Hugh, died at 
their pioneer home early in the nineties, while Andrew removed to their old 
home town, Peoria, Illinois, about the year 1900 where he shortly passed 
to his rest, in memory of the three brothers who helped, in their kindly 
way to make the trials of early life in Nebraska more pleasant for other 
people we record our heartfelt sorrow for their passing from among us. 

JOSEPH MCCORMICK 

An early settler on school land in -L- precinct, died in 1884; his wife, 
to whom he was married in 1869, died at Lincoln, Nebraska, January 4, 
1916, aged sixty-three years, eleven months and two days. To Mr. and 
Mrs. McCormick there were born four children, two daughters, Martha 
and Clara, both of whom preceded their mother to rest, and two sons, H. 
E. and Ira, both living. Mrs. McCormick was remarried in 1888 to J. M. 
Thornton and to this union there were born three children, William, Harriet 
and Marie — Harriet dicing in infancy. J. M. Thornton, the second hus- 
band, preceded his wife to rest in 1900. 

JOSEPH HICKMAN AND WIFE 

Settled on a homestead in -G- precinct in 1868 where he died October 
29, 1876. She remained upon the homestead thirty-six years when she 
moved to Aurora, Neraska, where she died, October 25, 1914, aged 81 
years, 1 month and 20 days. They were the parents of one son who died 
in infancy and five daughters still living. 

W'M. E. LeMMON, an 1872 settler in -N- precinct, died at his home, 
October 21, 19il. He left several sons and daughters. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 19l 

JACOB A. VVILSEY 

Came to Reward county in 1869, settling at Camden where he huilt a 
residence and resided one yezr, when he moved upon a homestead in West 
-O- precinct. He remained on the farm many years, making a success of 
his efforts in the line of agricultural production. But with the approach of 
age infirmities he abandoned his farm labors and retired to the village of 
Milford where he died July 25, 1912. aged 84 years. His v\ ife survived 
him but a short time, passing to her final rest November 11, 1912. Seven 
chidren survived them — four sons and three daughters. 

AUGUST DAEHLTXG 

Settled in the neighborhood of Stplehurst in 1867. He was born in 
Germany, February 19, 1839 and was married there to Elizabeth Roehrs 
in 1862, came to America in 1865 and to Seward county two years later. 
He died Saturday morning, may 6, 1916, aged seventy-seven years, two 
months and seventeen days, leaving a wife, two sons and four daughters to 
mourn the departure of a loving husband and father. 

JOSEPH H. HUFFMAN, 

An early settler in the vicinity of Beaver Crossing, died at his home in 
that village, November 1, 1915, aged sixty-seven years and twenty-one 
days. Mr. Huffman was a well known pioneer school teacher by residents 
of the south part of Seward county, having been engaged in that profession 
for about twenty-five years. The last few years of his life were spent in 
other occupations. He left to mourn his departure, a wife and five sons, 
one son having lost his life in 1913 by the accidental dischasge of a gun. 

RUSSEL SLONICKER 

Came to Seward county with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Slonecker, 
who settled in -F- precinct in 1875. He was married at Seward to Clara 
L. W ykoff in March 1878 and settled upon a farm west of Seward in -F- 
precinct where they resided many years. In 1892 he purchased the furni- 
ture business of D. Blessing at Beaver Crossing which business he con- 
ducted several years finally disposing of it he returned to the farm where 
he resided until 1904 when he entered into the mercantile business with I. 
L. Dermond at Beaver Crossing, retiring from that business at the end of 
one year moved to Lincoln where he became interested in the basket store 
business of that city. He died at his home in Lincoln, March 26, 1916, 
aged 55 years 2 months and 22 days. He left to mourn his departure from 
this life, a wife, one son and one daughter. 



192 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

DR. (). C. RENOLDS 

Who spent several years in the practice of medicine in the city of Sew- 
ard, and was for many years pension examininjy physician for the hoys who 
wore the blue in the days of the rebellion, moved to Lincoln in 1896, where 
he died of heart failure in 1911. He left a wife and three sons, two of 
whom, Drs. N. O. and C. A. Renolds are practicing physicians in the city 
of Lincoln. It seems the wife, Mrs. O. C. Renolds, was destined to ans- 
wer the summons through the dark valley of death in the same unexpected 
manner as that which called her husband to his eternal home and she drop- 
ped dead at the home of one of her son's in Lincoln, March 30, 1916, aged 
hfty-nine years. 

WILLIAM W. KONKRIGHT 

Was born in Milton, Chittenden county, Vermont, December 3, 1829; 
moved with his parents to Massena St. Laurence county. New York when 
ten years old, removing to Lake county Indianna in 1842. His first life as 
a western pioneer began by a settlement at Sigourney, Iowa, in 1852, where 
he was married to Maria Siverly September 26, 1854. She was born in 
Venango county, Pennsylvania, February 18, 1830, and became a pioneer 
settler in Louisa county Iowa while that state was yet a territory, removing 
to Sigourney in 1846. Mr. and Mrs. Konkright made their second pioneer 
settlement in the west upon a homestead near Cordova, Seward county, 
in the fall of 1870 where they spent twenty-nine years, retiring from the 
homestead and moving to Seward in 1899 where she died June 13, 1902, 
he following her to the great beyond December 23, 1907, aged 78 years 
and 20 days. They left six children to mourn their departure, John, Lewis 
Devo of Seward, Eugene, of Dunbar, Nebraska, Mrs. Almena Lull of Cor- 
dova, and Mrs. F. A. Parsons of Wiggins, Colorado. l"wo sons died in 
childhood, Milton aged four years was laid to rest at Sigorney, Iowa, and 
William in Leland cemetery, south-west of Heaver Crossing, Nebraska. 

MR. AND MRS. CLAUSE BUCK 

Settled on a honiisted near Germantown in 1874. He answered the 
summons to the world beyond in 1904, she following him to rest August 
22, 1915, aged 72 years, 3 months and 19 days. Mr. and Mrs. Bock were 
the parents of sixteen children, four of whom preceded them to their eternal 
home while twelve remained to mour:i their parent'e de;. arture. 

BIRNEY WISE 

Was born in Michigan, December 3, 1846; settled on a homestead in 
-1- precinct, nine miles south-east of Seward in 1875; died at his home in 
Seward, October 21, 1915, leaving a wife and two sons to mourn his loss. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 193 

Samuel G. Mathews settled in -F- precinct in August 1869 where he 
resided forty-one years and where his wife departed this life in 1907 after a 
companionship together of sixty-one years. He died March 28, 1913 aged 
90 years, 9 months and 3 days. No children were born to them. 

George B. Winterstein, a partner with T. H. I'isdale in the mercantile 
business at Beaver Crossing in the late seventies, died in Colorado, April 
7, 1905. A wife and daughter survived him. 

Henry J. Anderson, an 1873 homestead settler in -F- precinct, near the 
present village of Famora, died at Oklahoma City, October 15, 1905, aged 
sixty-eight years, five months and two days, leaving a wife and six children. 

John Hand, one of the earliest settlers in Seward county, died at his 
home two miles west of Goehner, Friday, January 6, 1906, aged sixty-eight 
vears, rive months and nineteen days. 

James Her, an early settler on Middle creek in -1- precinct, the founder 
of Pleasant Dale and its rirst postmaster, died at the home of his daughter, 
near that village, December 10, 1905, aged eighty-four years. Mr. Uer's 
wife died several years previous to his death. 

Hon. W. E. Ritchie, an 1870 homesteader in -D- precinct, died Mon- 
day, January 22, 1906, aged rifty-nine years and three months. He left a 
wife and six sons and daughters. Mr. Ritchie was elected to represent the 
county in the state legislature in 1890 and was elected in 1896 to represent 
Seward and Butler counties in the state senate. 

R. E. Marshall, a pio.neer settler and for thirty-three years a resident of 
Tamora, died at his home in that village, March 19, 1915, aged sixty years 
seven months and twenty-four days, leaving a wife, one son and two daugh- 
ters. 

Judge J. H. Wortendyke, one of the earliest settlers in the vicinity of 
Milford, and Stward county's judge from '69 to '71, died July 26, 1901. 
Norman Casler, an 1869 settler on a homestead in -L- precinct was 
frozen to death in a Kansas blizzard, December 26, 1886. His wife died 
at the home of her son, Pierce Dygert, south-west of Utica, February 2, 
1903, aged seventy-nine years and seven days. 

E. L. Ellis, one of Seward county's earliest settlers, who entered a farm 
of government land just north-west of Seward in I860, died at Seward 
March 10, 1914. 

Ransom walker, one of the early homesteaders m -L- precinct, coming 
in 1870, after many years residence on the farm, moved to Lincoln where 
he answered "the last roll call" October 13, 1913. 



194 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Oren Culver a homestead settler in -L- precinct in 1870 died at his 
home in Beaver Crossing, July 22, 1893, aged tifty-tive years. Mr. Culver 
was married in Harrison county, Indiana, to Mary J. Stephens in 1857, 
who followed him to rest August 25, 1913 at Lexington, Nebraska. They 
left two sons and two daughters. 

G. H. Underbill, a pioneer settler, and for many years in business in 
the city of Seward, died at his home in that city, September 12, 1903, aged 
seventy-two years. He left three daughters and three sons. 

G. Babson, for thirty years senior member of the Babson-Uickman Im- 
plement Company at Seward, died at his home, October 6,1903. iVlr. Bab- 
son was an enterprising citizen in public affairs and an able business man. 

David Roland who settled on rail road land in -L- precinct in 1878, 
died at his home in 1899. Mr. Roland was married in Kentucky in 1858 
to Nancy Jane Houchen, who died at the home of her son. Forest Roland, 
in Beaver Crossing, September 15, 1804. In an acquaintance with Uncle 
David and Aunt Jane Roland, as they were familiarly known, for a few of 
the closing years of their life, we learned to number them among our kind- 
dest friends and to remember them as the truest and , noblest christians. 
Their hearts were ever filled with the kindly sympathy and brotherly love 
of the one in whose footsteps they were constantly and faithfully following. 

\\ m. Cromwell who bought and settled on the John Todd homestead 
in -L- precinct in 1876, died at his home, Wednesday, April 17, 1901. He 
left one son and several daughters; his wife preceded him to rest. 

Carl Snyder, an -F- precinct pioneer homsteader, died at Hot Springs, 
S. D. where he had went in hopes cf improving his health, Monday Jijly 
5, 1915, aged seventy-four years one month and twenty-five days. A wife, 
one son and four daughters survived him. : 

George W. Anderson, a pioneer homestead settler two miles south-west 
of Seward died at his home, Sunday, Jrnuary 24, 1904, aged sixty-six years, 
eight months and nineteen days. 

John Kennett, who settled on a homestead in -L- precinct in 1870, 
died at his homestead home, March 29, 1915, aged sixty-four years. He 
left a wife and several children. 

John Maurer and wife settled on a homestead in section ten, -M- pre- 
cinct in 1870. She passed to rest November 26, 1884 and he followed her 
April 25, 1909, aged eighty-one years, one month and twenty-five days. 

Samuel Manning, a pioneer settler in Seward county, died at the home 
of his son in Seward, I'hursday, April 27, 1905, aged eighty-two years. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 195 

Andrew Mickelson settled in -E- precinct in 1872 and died at his home 
in 1896, He left a wife who remarried C. H. Christenson, another pioneer 
settler who died in June 1913 leaving her to mourn the second time for the 
departure of a loving husband. She passed to her rest May 10, 1915. 

M. E. Shorey located at Milford in 1870 and later moved to Seward 
where he was engaged for many years in business. He died suddenly of 
apoplexy, April 19, 1914, aged sixty-two years, nine months and two days. 
He left a wife and one son. 

Charles Henry Schrader, an 1873 settler in Seward, died May 22, 1915, 
aged seventy-three years, six months and eighteen days. His wife preceded 
him to the better world, November 25, 1911. I'hey left to mourn their 
departure, six daughters and three sons. 

Richard R. Schick who entered a homestead near Seward in 1869, died 
at his home in that city, Monday, May 24, 1915, aged seventy-four years, 
two months and eleven days. Mr. Schick was married to Elizabeth Whit- 
comb in Illinois in 1866, who with one son and two daughters survived him. 

Ered. J. Struhs a pioneer settler near Germantown, died at his home in 
that village, July 1, 1915, aged seventy-one years, ten months and twelve 
days. He left a wife and daughter. 

Herman Neitzel, an 1872 settler near Germantown, died at his home 
Wednesday, September 8, 1915, leaving a wife, 3 sons and 3 daughters. 

Erank M. Horton who located on a homestead in -L- precinct in 1870, 
was found dead in bed at his heme in Beaver Crossing, July 31, 1915. Mr. 
Horton was married in 1871 to Angelina Eoster who with one son remained 
to mourn his untimely departure. 

Ernest W. E. Wall, an 1877 settler near Seward, died at his home, 
April 15, 1914, aged eighty years one month and twenty days. A wife, 
three sons and four daughters survived him. 

James K. Devore was one of the earliest pioneer settlers of Seward 
county, having located on a homestead m -J- precinct in 1868. Some years 
after his settlement his wife died at the homestead home when he moved to 
Seward where he followed her to rest September 15, 1915, aged 72 years. 

Daniel P. Sherwood an 1871 homestead settler in the west part of -L- 
precinct, died at his home in Utica, Saturday, March 22, 1902. He left a 
wife who passed to her rest a few years later leaving their one son, George, 
to mourn the departure of a father and mother. 

Sprague K. Woods settled on a homestead near Seward in 1868 and 
died at his home August 12, 1914, aged seventy-seven years, one month 
and six days. A wife, two sons and one daughter mourned his departure. 



196 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

J. N. Roberts, an 1865 homesteader near Seward died at his home in 
Seward, March 11, 1914. 

Robert \\ alker, an early pioneer in -L- precinct, died at the home of 
his son James in that precinct, August 12, 1880 aged seventy-seven years. 
Mr. Walker was the father of Wm. H. and James Walker, the former was 
an early homesteader in -L- pfecinct and later a lumber dealer. 

Fredrick Schumacher settled on a homdstead in ■ G- precinct, north- 
west of Seward in 1872 and died at his home, at the advanced age of nine- 
ty-three years, April 10, 1913. 

Ernest Caleb and wife, both born in Germany, came to Seward county 
and settled in -L- precinct in the early seventies and later moved to Beaver 
Crossing where she died in 1913 and he in 1914. 

John P. Maule, one of the first school teachers in the village of Beaver 
Crossing, in the sod house period, died Friday, November 29, 1912 in a 
hospital in Kingston, New York, of heart failure. He left a wife, one son 
and two daughters. 

George Pickerel, a pioneer settler near Seward, having settled near that 
city in 1872, died at his home in Seward, Wednesday, August 1, 1894,aged 
seventy-two years. He left an aged wife and eleven sons and daughters. 

John Rumsey and wife, 1870 homesteaders in -L- precinct, moved to 
Lexington, Nebraska in 1878, and removed to Covina, California in 1907 
where she died May 4, 1909, he following her to rest May 31, 1910. 

James A. Fallen an 1871 settler in Seward, died at his home in that city 
December 20, 1914, aged seventy-one years and nine months. 

Elam Rumsey and wife settled on a homestead in -L- precinct in 1870 
where they resided fourteen years when they moved to Lexington, Nebraska, 
where he departed this life in August, 1903, she remaining till March 12, 
1914 when she passed to her rest, 

William Porter and wife homesteaded an eighty acre farm in the south 
part of -M- precinct in 1870 where they resided several of the pioneer years 
hnally moving to Friend where they spent their remaining days. Mr. Porter 
died while on a business trip to the western part of the state in 1906 and 
the wife followed him a few years later. 

John Fnglehaupt, an early settler and lumber dealer at Beaver Crossing 
in its booming days, and later ingaged in that business for many years at 
Milford, died at his home in that village, June 20, 1903. 

Wm. C. Follett an 1870 homesteader in -N- precinct died at his home 
in Seward where he had recently moved, June 12, 1903. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 197 

Edward Maul and family were pioneer settlers at Milford, moving from 
there to Beaver Crossing in 1872, he opened the first blacksmith shop in 
that village, and for many years performed the work in that line for the 
entire locality. Without doubt Mr. Maul pounded more breaking plows 
than any other man in Seward county and nine of every ten acres of im- 
proved farming land, in at least, the south-west quarter of the county were 
broken with plows sharpened by him. He departed this life after a long 
period of suffering with dropsy, at his home in Beaver Crossing, June 4th, 
1887. His wife, Hannah Maul, followed him to rest August 15, 1912. 
They left five sons and two daughters, one son having preceded his mother. 

Martin Campion, an 1871 settler two miles south-east of Beaver Cross- 
ing, moved to Lincoln in 1906 where he departed this life June 1, 1909, 
aged sixty-five years. He left a wife one daughter and two sons. -■■-•« 

John Battels came to Seward county and took a homestead in 1870 two 
miles from Staplehurst upon which he resided forty-four years, and until- 
the end of life, December 8, 1914. He was married June 15, 1866 to 
Dora Milkie and moved with his family from Iowa to Seward county in 
1870. Mr. Bartels was seventy-live years, four months and nine days of 
age at time of his death. His wife died several years previous. Three 
sons survived them. 

William A. Collier, an 1868 pioneer, died at his homestead home in -N-- 
precinct, July 6, 1909. Mr. Collier was married to Charlotte Ann Laune, 
May 15, 1864. His wife who survived him, died October 13, 1914, Five 
sons and daughters survived them. 

Orson Olmstead and wife, who settled near Seward in 1870, were 
among the few older people to seek a new home in the west. He was- born 
in Hartford, Conneticut, May 26, 1806, her birth occurring Feruary 21, 
1814. Her maiden name was Pauline D. Grant. They were married at 
Stillville, New York, April 14, 1838. She died December 26, 1893, and 
he went on to join her in that brighter world live days later, December 31 
1893. 1 hey were the parents of seven children, six surviv" ig them. 

W'iliam O. Pierce, a Nebraska pioneer, settling in Sarpy county, in that 
state in 1856 when it was known the world over as "The Great American 
Desert." He was married December 31, 1849 to Miss E. S. Poor who 
shared his pioneer life commencing the second year after their marriage 
when they emigrated in 1851 from Indiana to the wilds of Iowa. He died 
at Seward in 1900, leaving a wife, five sons and six daughters to mourn 
the departure of a loving husband and father. 



198 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Aaron Anderson came to Seward county in 1867 and homesteaded the 
west half of the south-west quarter of section twelve in -V- nrecinct. He 
lived single until March 7, 1873, when he was united in marriage with 
Susie McFeely. He died at the homestead home, March 1, 1904, leaving 
his wife and two sons to mourn the loss of a kind husband and father. 

Hiram L. Boyes came to Seward county in 1867 and settled at Seward 
where he built a saw mill, later adding a flouring department which took 
the name of "Banner Mills." Mr. Boyes experienced many difficulties in 
the pioneer times in conducting his mill, but managed to keep it in running 
order, adding improvements until it became a permanent, modern enterprise 
previously mentioned in this work. He died June 19, 190U, aged eighty- 
eight years. His wife having preceded him to rest several years, seven sons 
and daughters remained to mourn the loss of a father and mother. 

Rev. K. L. Clark, the first resident preacher in Seward county, came in 
1865 and settled on a homestead two miles south of Seward. We quote 
the following in regard to Rev. Clark from Cox's history: "Mr. Clark 
preached the second sermon ever delivered in this locality in the fall of 1865 
at the home of the writer, two and one half miles north-west of the present 
city. Mr. and Mrs. Clark were most welcome in this community. He 
proved of great benefit to the community in moulding moral and religious 
sentiment among the people. He organized the first Baptist Church in 
1870." Mr. Clark was not only available as a minister of the Gospel, but 
took high rank in those early days as a statesman, being elected in 1866 to 
represent his district in the Territorial legislature and elected to the first 
Nebraska state legislature, being an active and valuable member in the 
Capitol removal and many other important legislative acts. He passed to 
his great reward in March 1873, his good wife following him December 
19, 1874. They were the parents of eleven children. 

Hon. George A. Derby settled on a homestead in -E- precinct, near the 
present location of Utica, in 1870. Mr. Derby represented the county in 
the state leg'slature two terms. He died July 12, 1901, his wife having 
preceded him April 29, 1893. They were the parents of fourteen sons and 
daughters, twelve of whom reached the age of men and women. 

Hon. William R. Davis was married to Margaret A. Bohannan in the 
town where he was born in North Carolina, and moved from there to Iowa 
in a prairie schooner darwn by an ox team in 1852, removing in 1857 to 
Rock Bluff, Cass county, Nebraska. Mr. Davis was elected to the thiid, 
fourth and fifth sessions of the territorial legislature, and was appointed as_ 
sistant assessor for the territory. His wife died in 1864, and in August 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 199 

1S6(S he ma ri^^d Hannah C Colc-ni.m. In I81S he moved to Seward and 
in company with his son-m-law, j. N. Beaty opened the fi-rst general mer- 
chandise store in the locality of the present city, which business was contin- 
ued for ten y »ars when he abandoned the general merchandise trade and 
soon after establi>hed the grocery business which is now conducted under 
the firm name of "W . R. Davis c^' Sons." Mr. Davis died July 23, 1899. 
A wife and eight sons and daughters survived him. 

David H. Figard was married to Amy Anderson March 17, 1860 and 
they came to Seward county and took a homestead in -F- precinct in 1S67. 
Mr. Figard was elected county treasurer in 1885 and moved from the farm 
to Seward where he resided till the end of life, February 14, 1900. The 
wife and two sons, Henry and Silas remained to mourn the departure of a 
kind husband and father. 

Robert I . (jale, Seward county's first homesteader, who entered a home- 
stead just east of the city of Seward January 2, 1863, it being the next day 
after the homestead law became in effect, died in the spring of 1867. A 
wife and daughter survi^-ed him. 

David Imlay was born in 1792 and married Doras Johnson in 1814, 
moved from Pennsylvania, their native state, to Ohio to make their first 
home in the wilderness of Muskingam county the year they were married 
where they remained nine years when they returned to their native state to 
spend nine years, returning to Ohio they made another stay of seven years 
when they again moved on westward to the woods in Wabash county, 
Indiana. Their next move was to Harrison county, Iowa, in eighteen 
fifty- six and to Seward county, in 1864, settling on a homestead in section 
ten, -G- precinct. She died in 1871 and he followed her in June the next 
year. 

Grandfather and (jrandmother Imlay were the parents of twelve child- 
ren, one son, Hon. William Imlay was born at the old home in Pennsyl- 
vania in eighteen thirty. He accompanied his parents in their journeys 
from one state to another and during their residence in Indiana he was mar- 
ried to Mary Donaldson. After their settlement in Harrison county, Iowa, 
they seemed to have branched off from the parents and came to Cass 
county, Nebraska where they resided till eighteen sixty-four when they 
came to Seward county and settled on a homestead one mile west of Seward 
his parents coming the same year. Mr. Imlay was elected to the Nebraska 
t rritorial legislature the same year of his settlement and upon the organza- 
tion of Seward county in 1865 he was elected to the board of county 
supervisors and served with Wm. J. Thompson and H. W. Paaker three 



200 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

consecutive terms. In death as in life Hon. William Imlay and wife fol- 
lowed his parents to that eternal city of the blessed. They were the parents 
of seven children. 

Thomas H. Tisdale who opened a store of general merchandise in the 
John E. P'ouse ranch building at Old Beaver Crossing in 1869 and later 
moved his store, the U. S. postoffice and the town name four miles south- 
east to the present location of the village of Beaver Crossing, died at his 
home there July 7, 1888. Mr. Tisdale did very much to assist the early 
settlers in their struggles to keep "the wolf from the door" while they were 
improving their homes and getting in shape to help themselves. And it is 
a matter of regret that so few remembered his kindness past the time they 
needed it. He took a great interest in the welfare of his town and adjacent 
territory. Though he had no child to send to school he took a leading in- 
terest in the advancement of his home schools, being a prominent factor in 
the building and famishing of Beaver Crossings' first good s:hool house. 
And after the house was completed and the money which had been raised 
for its erection expended he procured funds to buy it a bell from the pro- 
ceeds of a dance in the new school house, July 4th, 1874. And whatever 
spirit may have been engendered by the dance, that bell rang for many 
years for every religious service held in the town, and has called the school 
children together every school day for forty-two years, and is still m service. 
And the benefit derived by the public from Mr. Tisdale's management is 
beyond computation, and there is no greater reward to bestow upon the one 
whose forethought extended the pepoles' interests so far in the future than 
to cast upon his last resting place a flower. Mrs. Lane E. Tisdale preced- 
ed him to rest, dieing July 29, 1881. They never had any children. 

VV illiam Morford, a pioneer settler in -N- precinct, died at his home, 
January 10, 1899. A wife and several children survived him. Mr. Mor- 
ford was a prominent and successful farmer, and an earnest and active pol- 
itician, always taking a firm stand for what he believed to be right. 

Benjamin Hunkins,an 1869 homesteader in -M- precinct, died April 27, 
1900. Mr. Hunkins served two terms in the Wisconsin legislature previous 
to his settlement in Nebraska, was an able attorney at law though he did 
not practice his profession in his new home state. He was an enterprising, 
progressive and highly respected citizen. He was ninety years of age at 
the time of his death and left several grown children and grand children. 

Luke Agur who built a mill at Marysville in the early seventies died at 
Exeter, Nebraska, July 1, 1902. Mr. Augur was one of the few early 
millers of Seward county who were justly cansidered public benefactors. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 201 

S. C. Langworthy, Seward's second banker, died at his home in that 
city, March 2, 1904. Mr. Langworthy came to Seward in the early seven- 
ties and established a state bank, and was president of the First National 
Bank of Seward at the time of his death. 

W. B. Barratt, one of Seward's earliest business men, having settled 
there in 1872, died at his home in that city, January 20, 1901. 

S. Adier, a pioneer merchant at Seward, and an able business man, died 
at Hot Springs, South Dakota, June 30, 1902. Mr. Adler made substan- 
tial and valuable improvements in the city of Seward during the time of his 
business career' there. 

General Victor Vifquain, one of the earliest settlers in Seward county, 
having settled near Camden in 1860, died Thursday, January 8, 1904. He 
was a philanthropist in ever sense of the term, and never failed to do a kind 
act when ever and wherever it was needed. 

Alexander U. Ritchie, one of the earliest homesteaders in -D- precinct, 
died at his home in Seward, April 25, 1892. Mr. Ritchie was married to 
Harriet Hoyt January 11, 1847, at Chicago, Illinois. He was a progress- 
ive farmer and bought a section of rail road land which he put under culti- 
vation in addition to his homestead. He helped to establish the State Bank 
of Beaver Crossing and was its first president. His wife followed him to 
rest at Seward, February 2, 1904. They were the parents of five children, 
Hon. VV. E. Ritchie, (deceased mentiond in this work) Alonzo D., Frank- 
lin C, (deceased) Alice G. married D. S. Jackson, and Jennie H. (deceas- 
ed) wife of Dr. H. B. Cummins, of Seward. 

Stites Wooley, a pioneer who settled at Nebraska City in 1855. Was 
born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1807, married Mary A. Stevenson in 1839, 
who was born in London, England in 1811. They removed from Nebraska 
City to Seward in 1864 and homesteaded near where Seward is located. 
Mr. Wooley was a brick mason by trade and laid the brick in many of 
the early brick structures in Seward. He died December 10, 1887 and his 
wife followed him January 10, 1899. They were the parents of four sons 
and four daughters. 

Milton Langdon came to Seward county in 1872, settling at Oak Grove 
where he followed the business of producing lime for many years. He died 
in December 1880, his wife surviving him nearly four years, dicing July 16, 
1884. They left two sons and two daughters to mourn their departure. 

(For additional list of deaths of pioneers see page 267—272.) 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



The Seward County Agricultural Society and Other Societies and Lodges. 



It is not the mission of this work to give singular and 
complete histories of societies and lodges. The County Ag- 
ricultural Society is closely indentified with the progress of 
agriculture in Seward county from the days of its earlest set- 
tlement. Its benefits to all the leading industries of farming, 
fruit production and stock raising are beyond estimate. In 
fact it is difificult to understand what a farming and stock 
raising county or state could substitute to take the place of 
an agricultral society. It is true the societ}' is composed of 
private individuals who have only a personal interest in the 
success of the enterprise. But so are the rail road compa- 
nies and other companies, almost indispensable to public m- 
terest, and it is a fact that a rich county agricultural society 
is a positive indication of a prosperous community through- 
out the count3\ 

The Seward County Agricultural Society was organized 
in 1871 and therefore may be classed among the pioneer en- 
terprises of the county. Just who all have been prominent 
members of it I am unable to state, but its first officials were 
Milton Langdon, president, F. M. Ellsworth, vice president, 
T. F. Hardenburg, secretary, and George W. Standard, 
treasurer. And the names of W. W. Cox, James A. Brown, 
T. L. Nerval and Joseph Lossee are connected with the 
early organization of the society. 

The society has held fairs nearly every year since its or- 
ganization v.'hich have been generally satisfactory and are 
increasing in interest to the public. Their fair ground 
at Seward is second to none in Nebraska and is a beautiful 
park. The buildings are modern and elaborate in design. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 203 

(JTHER SOCIETIES OR L(JOGES. 

I do not care to foll(3\v the precedent laid down by Broth- 
er W. W. Cox in trying to produce tlie history of lodges as 
a part of county history. In fact I fail to connect their his- 
tory with the history of the county in any way. Their rise 
and increasing growth has had nothing to do with conditions 
of public welfare nor have they advanced the prosperity of 
the communities in which they exist. The personal welfare 
of their individual members is all the conceivable benefit 
there is in any of them. However, that secret societies, or 
lodges, of nearly every kind do exist in Seward county, many 
of them being represented in every village is a matter worthy 
of note. Some of them are secret fraternal societies and 
some are secret beneficiary or insurance orders. The lat- 
ter's accomplishments in the way of benefits to their mem- 
bers have reflected creditably upon them with the general 
public in every locality of the county. 

There are but a small number of lodges in Seward county 
with organizations dating back to pioneer times. In fact no 
beneficary order was known in the county till several years 
past the pioneer period. The earliest lodge to organize in 
the county was the Independent Order of Good Templers. 
The first organization was at Miltord followed shortly by one 
at Beaver Crossing in the fall of 1871. For a limited time 
this was quite a popular movement, but it soon lost its at- 
tractive feature by an overgrowth of internal enthusiasm for 
the cause on one side while there was a corresponding disre- 
gard upon the other, causing distructive contentions to de- 
stroy the fraternal interest of the members, resulting in the 
final death of the order inside of one year. A few years 
later lodges of the same order were organized in different 
localities of the county, but they were about as short lived 
as the previous ones. 

Among the early pioneer settlers there were many mem- 



204 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

bers of the orders of Odd Fellows and Masons, and lodges 
of those orders were organized in Milford and Seward in the 
early seventies, but the greatest movement throughout the 
county in lodge formation took place along about 1880, when 
in addition to the Odd Fellow and Mason movement in the 
organization of lodges, The G. A. R. came to the front as 
an order and with their old time enthusiasm the comrades, 
bearing in mind the old order: "Fall in, Buys," fell in and 
organized posts in every town in the county. But sorrow- 
ing time with its destroying angel has laid its cold hand up- 
on so many of the boys and passed them to the eternal 
camp ground that the posts are diminished and fast passing 
away, there being but two with depleted ranks left in the 
county at the present time. The great movement in the 
formation of lodges of the insurance orders occurred about 
1888 and was the begining of a popular theme which has 
been increasing every year not only in membership in the 
older orders, but in new societies. The Ben Hur order was 
introduced in the county about 1902 and the Highlanders 
about a year later. They have many members throughout 
the county. 

It is possible that the increase in membership in the dif- 
ferent lodges during the past twenty-five years in Seward 
county has been much greater than in a majority of older 
counties farther east, resulting largely from the restless de- 
sire in the public mind from the earliest settlement of the 
county for changing scenes and enterprises. It is a notea- 
ble characteristic of individuals in the early communities to 
be vigilent and on the alert for that which might better their 
condition. And in this may be seen that spirit of progress 
that has made not alone the lodges but the general prosper- 
ity of Seward county, a spirit that has been a growing feature 
among those ot the rising generation. 







3&irit's €ur l^irtxt nf thr Cnuut\t ^faxr (finntniis nt ;S'ci»nr^. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



Notable Advancements in Seward County's Prosperity Leading; Up From 
Pioneer Times to The Great Changes to Modern Times. 



During the early years of the pioneer period, fiom i860 
to 1870, there were many deprivations and trials difficult to 
endure. Obtaining the necessaries of life was many times 
a problem solved with a puzzled brain and an empty stom- 
ach. The country offorded many natural additions to what 
the settlers produced on their homesteads, to eat, but the 
important items that make up the main stafi of life were the 
ones that tried the nerves and filled life with worry. Mills 
to grind bread material were so remote as to be almost out 
of reach. To reach them and get a few bushels of corn 
ground requiring days of journeying, crossing bridgless 
streams, camping on the great boundless prairie nights and 
keeping one eye open in a vigilant watch with fear for the 
possible onslaught of the red skins. Salt and other staple 
necessities from the cities and towns were fully as difficult to 
obtain. Crops and live stock were subject to confiscation by 
the Indians or wild animals. But the earliest settlers came 
to stay and struggled along, looking forward for brighter and 
better times in the future. The spirit ot progress was an 
early harbinger of good and mills soon began to answer its 
call and appear in different localities, the first one being the 
mill of Thomas West, known as West Mill, built in 1864. 
And the mills were followed in a few years by stores and 
postoffices. Although the capacity of the mills was small 
and the store supplies limited they were blessings that made 
home seem homelike to the discouraged settlers and gave 
them a new impulse for improving their opportunities which 
marked the beginning of an unparaleled advancement that 



206 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

regardless of the many ups and downs yet to bs experienced 
went steadily and surely on. 

The years from 1870 to 1880 were fraught with many 
trials and disappointments for the homesteaders. Crop fail- 
ures, sand and dirt storms, hot winds, drouths, grasshoppers, 
chintz bugs, living in sod houses and dugouts, })overty, pri- 
vation and want made up the problem of frontier life. Yet 
the footsteps of approaching prosperity by which the dark 
days were growing brighter were still advancing. During 
those most trying years of the pioneer period there was but 
one year that a decrease in population was shov/n by census 
returns. In 1875, the year following the great grasshopper 
raid there was a decrease of eight hundred and twenty-eight 
in population, a result of some people being worse scared 
than hurt and without waiting for further warning left, some 
of them being glad of an oppotunit}' to get scared away from 
their debts, left unpaid for farm implements and machinery 
half worn out and eaten up with rust, standing in the fields 
as mementos for the implement dealers who trusted them 
to remember them by. And so far as this class of inhabi- 
tants went the decrease in population was not lamentable. 
However many excellent people become alarmed and left, 
many returning later on. But in 1876, the year after the 
scare, there was an increae of two hundred and seventy-four 
in population, and in 1878, two years later there was an av- 
erage increase of five hundred and fifty-six for each year, or 
one thousand, one hundred and sixteen for the two years. 
The following two years, 1879 and 1880, after the grasshop- 
per excetement had subsided and conditions had become 
settled to a normal state, the average increase for each year 
was one thousand, five hundred and fifty-two, the total in- 
crease for the two years being three thousand, one hundred 
and four. 

The great agricultural wealth of the soil was gradually 



HISrOKY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NKIiRASKA. '^O? 

becoming more fully understood every year, while the faciH- 
ties for transportation of farm produce were improving and 
thereby increasing the profits from productions. And those 
productions were being more fully developed every year by 
introductions of advanced labor saving farm implements, by 
a better knowledge of the most profitable crops, suitable to 
the climate and soil and by the use of cheaper and grain 
saving methods of harvisting. The dismal and dull days of 
the i)ioneer period were gradually passing away from about 
the date of the last homestead entries in 1870, and termina- 
ted during the period from 1880 to 1890. Land that seemed 
so cheap or valuless, many acres of which were laying idle 
and growing up to weeds, or let out to tenants in considera- 
tion of their keeping down the weeds, took an incline upwards 
and some idea of its approaching value appears to have been 
entertained by the homesteaders. They cut ofif all waste qf 
valuable land by fencing and crowding the highways from 
their fields to the section lines. Sod houses and dugouts 
crumbled, decayed and shortly passed out of use and exist- 
ance, being replaced by fine modern homes. The remem- 
brance of the sod houses and dugouts of Seward county, with 
all of their pioneer time blessings passed to history when the 
changes from pioneer to modern coditions were ushered in. 
And while this marks one of the advancing steps of prosper- 
ity, it will be remembered by many with deep and heartfelt 
regrets. Surrounding those homely places of abode, now 
characterised as disagreable places of refuge, are entwmed 
the sweetest memories of childhood, youth and the familey's 
home. "Be it ever so humble there's no place like home." 
And a great majority of the early settlers will remember 
those homes in all of their ugliness as "friends in need and 
friends in deed. " It is well understood that in the closing 
days of the pioneer period Seward county had a wave of in- 
creasing prosperity which was shown no where more eyi- 



208 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

dentl}^ than in the towns. 

ADVANCEMENT AS SHOWN BY ASSESSMENTS. 

A glance at the assessed valuation of property in Seward 
county from the first assessment in the county in 1866 to 
1885 will disclose the gradual advancement in prosperity. 
There was a small amount of deeded land in the county in 
1866 that was taxable and that property increased at a great 
rate as soon as the homesteaded land began to change to the 
personal real estate of those who homesteaded it, but that 
could not be considered an advancement in prosperity. The 
most reliable way of computing the amount of increase in 
prosperitv would be from the increase in the assessed value 
of town and personal property. The amount of deeded land 
assessed in 1866 was 4,728 acres, the tax valuation being 
$18,667. Personal property assessments amounted to $10,- 
880, the total personal and real estate assessments amount- 
ing to $29,547. There was no town property assessments 
that year. The levy on personal property and real estate 
brought the county $423.00. 

Four years later, the 1870 combined real estate and per- 
sonal property assessments amounted to $120,160, an in- 
crease of $90,513 in four years. But this increase was al- 
most entirely due to the fact that many of the early home- 
steads had been "proven up on," as it was termed at that 
time, and turned over by the government to the homestead- 
ers and thereby become taxable real estate. The number of 
acres of real estate assessed at this time was 33,670, an in- 
crease of 28,842 acres. And still there was practicially no 
town property assessed. 

During the next five years the 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869 
and 1870 homesteads, which amounts to nearly the entire 
homestead entries, become taxable real estate and there 
were 275,204 acres assessed in 1875, the tax valuation be- 
ing placed at $1,025,439. Up to this assessment town prop- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 209 

had not been mentioned, but the increase during the five 
years from 1870 to 1875 gave town property an assessment 
showing of $92,091 which, with the assessment of personal 
property at $412,335 and the rail road $67,480, was the first 
indication of real advancement in the county. And it was 
a great showing. In nine years — 1866 to 1875 town prop- 
erty had increased in value from nothing to a little over three 
times the assessed value of the real estate and personal 
property at the county's first assessment. 

During the next five years, from 1875 to 1880, there was 
a great advancement along the whole line. The real estate 
of the county increased 63,595 acres, the assessed number 
of acres being 338,799, amounting to $1,216,669, the valua- 
tion being fixed at 16 cents less per acre than in 1875. 
Assessments on town property reaches $130,906, personal 
property $506,316, and rail road which has an increased 
number of miles from eleven to fifty-four, is assessed at 
the value of $183,447, amounting to a total of $2,037,337, 
an increase of $540,002 in five year. In estimating the gain 
in property at this time it must be remembered that the tax 
levy was reduced considerably during the last five 3^ears. 
The increase in acres of real estate was due more than it 
had previously been to the fact that more rail road land had 
become taxable real estate. 

In 1885 land assessments amounted to 1,391,385 dollars; 
town property, personal property and rail road assessments 
made almost an equal showing, amounting to 1,273,222 dol- 
lars, which indicate the county's prosperity advancement 
in the five years from 1880. 

It might be a difficult problem to figure out the gradual 
increase in all kinds of property from the first of the pioneer 
period in 1865 to its close in 1885 by the assessments, yet 
those assessments point directly to a certain progress which 
will clearly be recognized by all careful, observing pioneers. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



A Reflection and Backward Glance at Pioneer Days Gone by. 



Looking backwards forty and fifty years to the hardships, 
-troubles, trials and privations of pioneer life in Seward 
county, it is in accordance with nature to feel that the sacrifice 
of the comforts and enjoyments of former homes and the 
pleasures surrounding them was too great for the reward to 
be gained. But placing those things in the balance with 
the pioneer freedom, social relation of neighbors and the 
general absence of dull care, and the seeming sacrifice looses 
its significance and a longing for an opportunity to live it all 
over is ever present with us. The human race can live but 
one childhood and but one youth, those periods in life are 
never fully enjo^^ed till they are replaced by more mature 
years and old age. It is then that one can glance backward 
with regrets for lost opportunities and sigh for the dear old 
dead past. And while each and every individual can enjoy 
those brightest of all periods in life, pioneer life in a new 
country can be lived only by those who shared its sorrows 
and joys in pioneer times, and can be lived b\' them but 
once. After passing that period known as pioneer da3's, 
which might be called the country's birth period, it passes 
to eternity and beyond recall. And the memoriable events 
of pioneer life in Seward county is fast passing from the 
minds of men and women as "ohe by one" the remanents of 
that grand community of hom'C seekers and home builders, 
follow in the footsteps of pioneer days to eternity. Those 
who remain of that throng that passed through the ordeal of 
pioneer life look back upon those days with regrets akin to 



. HISTUKY OF SEWAKU COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 211 

those of the aged looking back upon their childhood, through 
gathering tears. ' The memories of those times which we 
know are fast fading from even the thoughts of men in the 
(hstant past, are realities in life which are eternally lost as 
they can never be imprinted upon other minds than those 
who lived them. While they may be printed upon paper as 
near as words can picture them they have passed in reality 
to silent rest forever. 

In reviewing the past and comparing it with the present 
I am tempted to quote a little poetry which illustrates to a 
certain degree the social side of life "then and now" in Sew- 
ard county. It is not of western origin, but illustrates the 
spirit of early days in the west. At that time as at the pres- 
ent there were some persons who condemned dancing as a 
sin. Let it be a sin or no sin as it may, by holdmg the in- 
terests and contentment of the communities till other con- 
ditions were reached, those old time social events were the 
corner stones of society, the foundation upon which Seward 
county and the entire western frontier built their civilization. 
They were the approaches to the bridge over which advanc- 
ed the society and prosperity of today. 

THE OLD VIRGINIA REEL. 

Queer, some times, how little happ'nin's, little chances, little things, 

Comes to free a feller's fancy from its tight-drawn leadin' strings; 
And just now a little girlie, dressed up mighty fine and gay, 

Came to tell her proud old grandpa of her dancing school today; 
And her talk has set him dreamin', set his mem'ry driftin' back 

Down along the tangled pathway where old Time has left his track, 
Till to him, across the twilight, scraps of music seem to steal. 

And he hears the fiddies playin' for the old Virginia Reel. 

Till he sees again the faces crowded in the little hall, 

Smells once more the lamps that sputter in their brackets on the wall, 
Hears the ribbons rasp and rustle 'gainst a starchy musim gown. 

And the Sunday shoes a-squeakin' as the feet go up and down; 
Sees the old folks on the benches lookin' on with happy smile — 



212 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Dancin' days are past and over — yes, indeed ! but wait a while; 
Wait until the prompter hollers, as the tunin' fiddles squeal, 
"Gentlemen'll choose their partners for the fust Virginia Reel." 

Just you watch those benches empty ! How can mother keep her seat 

When afore her, arm extended. Uncle Jim is on his feet? 
See her laugh and drop a court'sy; see his polished cowhides shine, 

And the wrinkles in his coat-tails as he leads her into line. 
Father's there with A'nt Sophrony; see her eyes alight with fun, 

Though there's silver at her temples where 'twas gold at twenty-one. 
Notice how she smiles at Mother? Ah, it does 'em good to feel 

There's no room for years and worry in the old Virginia Reel. 

And I wonder — yes, 1 wonder, if some other feller sees, 

Same as 1, a road that wanders in and out among the trees, 
Where the moonlight flings your shadows — hers and yours — acrost the 
snow. 

And, behind, the talk and laughter sounds so faint and far and low; 
It's a world bewitched to stillness, like 'twas by a fairy's charm. 

And your own good fairy — bless her! has her hand upon your arm. 
Can't you smell the snow-hung spruces ? hear the crust beneath your heel ? 

Walkip' homeward through the moonlight, from the old Virginia Reel? 

Well, the time keeps movin' onward and the dancin's different now, 

And there's no more prompters callin' "Money Musk" or "Speed the 
Plough" 
And the little bright-eyed girlie, climbin' on her grandpa's knee. 

Smiles to hear his funny stories of the days that used to be. 
But I guess we were as happy, though we hadn't quite the style. 

And I ain't so sure the "two-step" beats the jig step such a pile; 
And I'd swap the grace and beauty for the stamp and laugh and wheel 

That brought youth and age together in the old Virginia Reel. 

— Selected. 

In glancing forward from the closing scenes of pioneer 
life our vision is met with glimpses of the approaching great 
changes with their overshadowing wings covering and trans- 
forming the old to the new era, which will be dealt with in 
the preceding chapters of this work. 



CHAPTER XXXL 



The Changes From Pioneer Conditions to 1 hose of the New Era. A 
Startling Prophetic Vision of the Golden Future Upon the Great Ex- 
panse of the Western Plains, Saw in 1866. 



As to the great and rapid changes which have transform- 
ed the once wild plains, or "desert," in which is located Sew- 
ard county, to its present high state of civilization and pros- 
perity, I am at a loss for language to depict. Perhaps a look 
from the distant past into the future might reveal the mystry 
in a measure, of the grand advancements of the past as ac- 
curately as it pictured the future at that early date. From a 
work entitled "Turner's Guide to The Rock}' Mountains," 
published in 1866, I quote the following interesting prophecy: 

"The traveler from the lakes to the mountains is apt to 
undervalue that great expanse of territory which he traverses. 
Political, social, industrial and commercial problems, which 
have no paralell and as yet have had no solution, crowd up- 
on him and he strives to outwork them. He recognizes the 
prophecy of events, but he fails to realize its fullfilment, and 
it is only when he observes the ever increasing tide of hu- 
manity rushing into the wilds and establishing out-posts of 
civilization that he catches glimpses of the golden future. 
He sees the population of the continent, which in 1854 was 
but forty millions augmented by the well ascertained rate of 
increase, to be eighty-eight millions in 1900, and to one 
hundred and seventy-six millions in 1925. A large propor- 
portion of this mighty throng he finds domiciled upon the 
three million square miles over which our flag now floats. 
The plains and the mountains are teeming with intelligence, 
industry and busy life. He beholds new cities, new marts of 



214 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

trade and industries. A dozen iron roads instead of one 
span the continent and carry from ocean to ocean the com- 
merce of half the world with incredible speed. The political 
center of our country has passed the Missouri river and the 
capital of the nation rears" its dome almost in sight of the 
snow capped peaks of the west." 

Was this picture of the future Very greatly over drawn ? 
It was certainly not a fanciful dream beyond the realm of 
possibility. The public has only to go back to that date, 
half a century ago, and view the conditions in Seward county 
and compare them with those of the present time to realize 
its true value. Adam and Eve in the (harden of Eden could 
not have laid greater claims to having associated with and 
been wholy governed in their living by nature, with thd pos- 
sible exception of the garments thev^ wore, than * could the 
sod house and dugout inhabitants of Seward county in the 
sixties and early seventies. They subsisted upon just what 
nature produced from the Eden like soil, were sheltered from 
rain, wind, cold and heat by what nature provided and were 
ever dependent upon the scant supply nature gave them of 
'fuel to keep them warm and cook their game, fish and other 
food. 

At the time of the publication of the quoted prophecy, in 
1866, there was not a railroad in operation in Nebraska and 
there wasnot.one completed "iron road spanning the con- 
tinent" and but one had ever been thought of. There was 
no sign of the hundreds of modern cities which are now in 
evidence in all parts of the state, with their paved streets 
and railroads leading in every direction, nor the many beau- 
tiful villages supplied with electric lights, telephones and 
modern mail facilities with rural mail routes leading to ever\' 
■farm house. If the casual travelers who passed along the 
steam wagon and freight routes in early pioneer times 
through Seward county were conducted over those routes 



HISTURY. UF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 215 

today they would realize their previous inabilit}^ to "catch 
glimpses of the golden future" and would recognize the ful- 
filment of the "prophecy of events. " They now se6' the 
immense. liindustrial and commercial advancement- and turn 
the pages of memory in vain to find their paralell.' Upor^ 
those pages they see the unbroken : prairie, inviting home- 
seekers to settlement without price or cost. With the ex- 
ception of a few Cottonwood and other native trees growing 
along the streams, the scenery is an endless plain and not a 
switch large enough to chastize a cat with is visibte. , An- 
occasional sod house or a stove pipe sticking up from a dug- 
out are the only objects or signs of civilized life to be seen.^ 
The wind is constantly sweeping the prairie from first one" 
and then another direction with furious velocity and feeling 
the old time lonelyness and dispare they close the memorial 
pages and turn to the present grand and interesting scenes 
around them. And they behold those once baren plains 
dotted with groves of timber, the sod houses and dugouts 
replaced by palatial farm residences and comodious, modern 
barns everywhere visible, with Imes of telephone poles and 
wires running in every direction. In the distance they see 
the church steeples and grain elevators and hear the whistle 
of the locomotive as it pufis along with its train of cars heavy 
laden with produce from the farms. They turn m every 
direction to catch the old, familiar blast of air, but it is silent, 
gone forever and in its stead comes a gentle and refreshing 
breeze, stimulating the senses and bracing the nerves. 

But it is not only the travelers who may be reminded of 
the vast changes which mark the prophetic vision. Failing 
to catch "glimpses of the golden future" many homesteaders 
undervalued their opportunities and immagined that because 
they got their homes for nothing they were worth nothing, 
many of them disposing of their land for a trifle while others 
held on to theirs only because the small amount it would 



216 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

brin": was not enouo;h to take them safelv out of the "des- 
ert. " Anfd now after a lapse of forty or fifty years all are 
brought face to face with the fact that the land which cost 
them nothing and would not bring over one dollar and a 
quarter an acre in those early days is worth one dollar now 
for every cent it was worth then and has ready buyers at all 
times. 

In consideration of the ordinary decline of soil from con- 
stant crop production the land in itself could not be as valu- 
able after forty or fifty years tilling as when it was new land, 
therefore the cause for the great advancement in its price 
must be attributed to something else. And I can find no 
better solution of the problem than in the fact that the fulfil- 
ment of the prophecy of events has been realized and the 
prophetic "under- value of that great expanse" has been re- 
versed by an mdustrial period to a foundation of true and 
real value. 

In the foregoing views of "the old and new" I have only 
partially considered the improvements and advanced condi- 
tions of the county in fifty years. As stated, at the begin- 
ing of that period, there was not a rail road in opperation in 
Nebraska where now the state is well equipped with those 
necessary methods of transportation. And as was also stat- 
ed there was not "one iron road spanning the continent" 
while there are now nearly the prophecied number and busy 
life and prosperity are everywhere in evidence of prophetic 
fulfilment. And, again, to these achievements may be at- 
tributed the adveancement in land values. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



Seward County — Its Towns, Postoffices, Schools, Etc., After the Changes 
From Pioneer Conditions. 



The changed state of public affairs in Seward county, 
by which the general prosperity of its citizens has reached 
the highest attainment of progressive success in industry,' 
agricultural and intelectual pursuits was not made in a day, 
month, year nor even ten years, but just grew up with the 
country. It had its beginning with the earliest settlers and 
is due to their habitual diligence in sowing the seeds of pro- 
gress. We have seen them portrayed in this work, building 
sod house and dugout homes and ever mindful of the inter- 
ests and welfare of the rising generation, building sod, log 
and dugout school houses without sufficient means to buy a 
door or window for their house of instruction, nor pay for 
hinges to hang the door nor even for a draw-string to the 
door latch, but the school houses were i^ early evidence, 
pointing onward to coming success. The early settlers were 
industerous, and ever on the alert for that which might im- 
prove the general welfare of their communities. However 
the closing of the pioneer period and the ushering in of 
that period known as the new or modern era, which might 
be termed "the changes," occurred during the period from 
about 1885 to 1910. 

In the pioneer portray of Seward county, its towns, schools 
and postoffices, Camden was found to be the earliest and 
foremost town in the county, but by the location of the county 
seat at Seward and the advent of the railroad to that part of 
the county, together with the nearby towns on the rail road 
in Saline county, Camden was crowded out of existance and 
its identity as a town is unremembered by its own citizens. 



218 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

But the location of the old town of Camden as well as its 
immediate surounding sections of real estate is the most 
attractive locality in Seward county if not in the state of Ne- 
braska. 

SEWARD. 

In those interesting days in the birth of the county and 
the country in general in which it is located, Seward was not 
a town. It got its name about the time that Camden and 
Milford were springing into prominence, but as the party 
who owned the real estate desired for the new townsite hes- 
itated about having a town built upon his pro[)erty, the city 
of Seward was somewhat like the "chicken counted before 
the egg was hatched." And the town not only had a name, 
but it got a post office before it had a location which was al- 
most forced into the log residence of Lewis Moffit and that 
gentleman conscripted into Uncle Sam's service as post- 
masster by the enterprising citizens. These matters together 
with the little log school house, serving the ymrpose as 
church, school and county court house have been previously 
dealt with in the reminiscences of pioneer da\'s in this his- 
tory, and we have now before us Seward, a modern cit\'. 

Seward today with a population of between three and 
four thousand inhabitants is supplied with numerious dail}^ 
mails by railway. The Chicago Burlington & yuincy rail 
road, known as the B. & M., enters the city from the east, 
west and north, and the Chicago & North Western passes 
through it from north-east to south west. While the weekly 
mail — carried a distance of twenty miles in an army haver- 
sack by a man on foot — has been supplanted by the daily 
mails as stated, the log house postotitice has been replaced 
by an improved structure at an expense of several thousand 
dollars supplied with a complete set of modern post office 
fixtures, including eight hundred and forty private mail boxes 
at an expense of three thousand five hundred dollars. In 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. '219 

addition to these facilities for handling the city mail there 
are six rural mail routes, upon which mail is delivered daily 
from the Seward post office to several hundred of the farm- 
ers' homes now occupying the old homesteads of pioneer 
days. 

To meet the requirements of advancing changes in the 
city, new and expensive high school houses have come and 
gone smewhat in hne with the appearing and disappearing of 
the sod and log school houses of pioneer days, until the third 
commodious school building has recently been built at a cost 
of fifty thousand dollars. 

The modern public improvements in the city of Seward 
consist of a fine county court house, one of the best in the 
state, a jail in line with it, a public park, high school build- 
ing, seventeen thousand dollar city hall and fire department, 
twelve thousand dollar Young Mens' Christian Associotion 
building, Carnigie Library building, cost, eight thousand 
dollars, forty-five thousand dollar city water works, twenty- 
five thousand dollar light plant. The city has fifty-two 
blocks of street pavement and more being added, and twentv 
miles of brick and cement sidewalks. The streets, which in 
the days of street grain buying, were outlined with invisable 
corner stakes and a few wagon ruts, are now lined with large 
forest and ornamental shade trees, telephone and electric 
light poles while fine, commodious residences fronts them 
on all sides. 

There are eight church buildings in the city. The Ger- 
man Lutheran is perhaps the finest church building in the 
state of Nebraska outside of the large cities. It was erected 
at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars. The M. E. church 
is also a very fine and imposing edifice, built at a cost of 
fifteen thousand dollars. The Catholic church was built at 
a cost of six thousand dollars, and the Congregational near 
the same amount. The Prysbeterian church was originally 



220 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

built in 1872 and although it has been removed from its first 
foundation and rebuilt in later design, it can still be called a 
pioneer church building. And notwithstanding this it is one 
among the fine church buildings of Seward county. The 
Adventists, United Breathern and Evangelicals all have 
good, substantial houses of worship. 

(3ne of the most interesting and laudable enterprises in 
the city of Seward is the (jcrman Normal College, which 
was instituted in 1894 by members of the German Evangel- 
ical Lutheran Church throughout Nebraska, led by such 
prominent business men of Seward as Herman Diers, John 
F. Goehner and O. E. Bernecker. The school was opened 
in the fall of 1894 in one brick building built that season, 
with an enrollment of but sixteen students. There has been 
a gradual growth in this institution and it is now occupying 
six large school buildings, including a training department 
and music hall four stories high where several pianos and 
pipe organs are in daily use. In addition to the six school 
structures there are eight beautiful private residences occu- 
pied by the instructors. The estimated cost of this enter- 
prise is one hundred thousand dollars. The increase in num- 
ber of students brought the 1916 enrollment up to one hund- 
red and forty. 

An artificial ice plant, installed in 191 2 by Grati, Steven- 
son & Company at an expense of thirty-two thousand dol- 
lars, marks the progress of times from the pioneer days. 
This enterprise is said to be of the greatest benefit to the 
largest number of people of any establishment in Seward. 

Among the many expensive public buildings within the 
limits of the city is the B. & M. railway depot which was 
built at an expense of eighteen thousand doilars. It occupies 
historic ground — within the boundaries of the pioneer grain 
market — from the ground upon which it stands, out across 
the still remaining, well remembered bridge, upon the bot- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 221 

torn, mounted grain buyers watched for the approach of 
wagons loaded with grain, each eager to get in the first offer 
for the load; at the first appearance of a team they were ofi 
under whip and spur to meet it. About twenty rods north- 
west of where the depot now stands, a little up the incline, 
was the grain office and weighing scales of E. C. Carnes, 
and just south of it at the track were the two elevators. U"p- 
on the site of the depot stood what was known to farmers as 
a "shoveling elevator" where they elevated their loads of 
grain with a scoop shovel, generally upon an empt}^ stomach 
after a ride of eighteen or twenty miles. Farmers didn't 
ride in automobiles in those good old times, and felt mighty 
proud to have a spring seat to ride on. But the "good old 
times" are gone and with them the pioneer grain market of 
Seward. 

The business of Seward at the present time is conducted 
in ninety-two establishments. Three hardware stores, one 
operated by J. F, Goehner, who has been in the business 
since 1879. S. C. Oaks, an 1870 settler in the county has 
been in the hardware trade since 1891, and Rupp & Dietz 
have the hardware business established by John Zimmerer. 

Five grocery stores are in opperation. The business of 
W. R. Davis & Sons was established in 1879, and although 
the elder member of the firm passed to his eternal reward 
many years ago the business is still conducted in the origi- 
nal firm name; T. C. Sampson has the next oldest grocery 
store, having been in the business since 1901 ; the other 
three more recently established stores are conducted by C. 
T. Joren; J. E. Croy; and T. H. Feary. 

Three drug stores dispense medicine for the city and sur- 
rounding districts. They are conducted by M. J. Douglas; 
A. Schuler; and H. J. Cooper. 

Two furniture stores are in operation, one by W. H. 
Moore was established in 1898; and Fred. Goehner has been 



222 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

in the business since 1906. 

(I wish to digress here to make correction of an error in re- 
gard to the location of E. C. Cams' grain buying office, men- 
tioned on preceding page. It stood a few rods north-east 
instead of north-west of where the B. & M. depot stands.) 

Parks & Willis conduct a wholesale and retail feed store 
which was opened by the first named gentleman in 1889. 

Henry Campbell is the proprietor of a prosperous business 
in the buying and selling of seeds. He is established on fifth 
street; has an extensive trade every year. 

The city is supplied with two first class hotels, two up- 
to-date cafes, and a number of lunch rooms which make the 
eating facilities equal to the ordinary demand. 

There are three first class blacksmith shops in operaticm 
in the city; Chris Vogel is conducting one of the highest 
grade shops in the state of Nebraska. His welding of iron 
is done by electricity, and all other work by the latest mod- 
ern system. This shop has a floor space of four thousand 
five hundred feet. It was established in 1887. (ieorge 
Knipple has a fine shop on the corner of Eighth and Main 
streets, and A. R. McCord is doing a good business on Sew- 
ard street. 

Five automobile garages are in operation in the city and 
each doing good business. 

One of the oldest established shoe stores perhaps in the 
state of Nebraska, is conducted by C. F. Kroeger who has 
been continually in the business in Seward forty-one years, 
it being a pioneer trade of 1875. 

Three grain elevators and two alfalfa mills are located in 
the west part of the city. Harrison & Son are operating an 
elevator on the Columbus branch ot the B. & M., and the 
Updyke Grain Company have one on the Northwestern. 
Imig, Grafi & Hentzen run a large elevator in connection 
with their alfalfa mill. This mill has a capacity of thirty 



. HISIUK\ OF SKWAKU Li)lKl\\ NEBRASKA. 223 

tons a day. Nelson & F'igard are operating the second al- 
falfa mill which has an equal grinding capacity with the 
former. 

The two flouring mills of pioneer days are, with improved 
appliances and modern machinery, grinding away. The 
old Banner Mill, established in 1869 bv Hiram L. Bov^es, is 
now owned and conducted by Boyes & Hulshizer. It has a 
grinding ca})acity of one hundred and twenty-five barrels of 
flour per day. The mill built in the seventies by Cooper & 
Henderson, two miles south of the city, is owned and run by 
Heuman Borthers and is doing excellent work. It has a 
capacity of fifty barrels of flour per day. 

Two lumber yards are in operation in the city. One is 
run by the Pauley Lumber Company and the other by the 
Seward Lumber Company. 

In the way of clothing stores Seward is certainly on the 
map, there being four diflerent exclusive clothing establish- 
ments in the city. William P. Berdolt has been in the bus- 
iness since 1882; the Graff Clothing Company since 1888; 
Curry Brothers since 1906 and Hershberger & McCoy estab- 
lished their business in 1914. 

Ed. Woods, proprietor of the cigar store and news stand 
was born in Seward in 1877, and has been in business nine 
years. 

Four first class drygoods stores are doing business in the 
city. Pete Goehner is a pioneer in the trade, having been 
continually in it since 1873. M. C. Miller has been doing 
business eighteen years. The Seward Dry Goods Company 
have been in the city about six years, and D. S. Chappel, 
successor to Diers Brothers, two years. 

J. F. Geesen is proprietor of the one tailor shop which 
he has conducted nineteen years. 

Three meat markests furnish the city with meat. Brown 
& Salsbury may be found on Seward street, George Rapp 



224 HISTORY OF SEWAKU COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

on the east side of the square, August Blenderman near the 
corner on Seward street. 

Percy (3st manages the electricial supply store. Two 
city photograph galleries are conducted by W.D.Givens and 
J. H. Walford. The former has had a gallery in the same 
location for thirty-five years and it was established in the 
pioneer period. Mr. Walford has been in his present loca- 
tion about four years. The Seward brick yards are owned 
and managed by J. W. Turner. This business is am ng 
the best up-to-date brick works m Nebraska. A pop factory 
and bottling works are managed by H. M. Wiese. Two 
cigar factories are in operation in the city, by H. F. Busche 
and F. Kaufman. H. G. Dunphy has been in the business 
of repairing and painting buggies and carriages for twenty- 
five years. The city has five coal yards. John Fleener and 
W. H. Whiteneck are each in the poultry trade. R. G. 
Buchanan is proprietor of the city steam laundry. 

Three bakeries supply the city with "the stafif of life," ex- 
cellent bread, pies and cakes. They are opperated by Wm. 
Leibhart, VV. T. Mickleson and J. H. Feary. 

J. F. Gereke, Seward's artistic musician, repairs and sells 
all kinds of musical instruments. Also deals m sewing ma- 
ma.chines, wall paper etc. Mr. Gereke has been a Seward 
business man for thirty-six years, being a pioneer druggist 
and jeweler for several years, and was successor to Cyrus 
Chapin in the music trade in 1887. 

E. A. Policy IS one of two early pioneer merchants in 
Seward, Pete Goehner being the second, and both gentle- 
men established their business in 1873. Mr. Policy deals in 
iewelr_v. 

There are three banks in Seward. Two of them are out- 
growths of pioneer enterprises. The State Bank of Nebras- 
ka was the first bank in Seward county and was founded by 
Claudius Jones in 1873. The Frst National Bank was or- 



HISTURY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKLA. ■. 225 

ganized as the Seward County Bank by S. C. Langworthy 
in 1876. It merged into and was chartered as a national 
bank in 1882. The Jones National Bank was established-in 
1884 by Claudius Jones who was its first president, being 
succeded by his son, H. T. Jones in 1895. 

Six rural mail routes lead out from Seward ranging 'in 
length from twenty-seven to twenty-nine miles each. Devoe 
Konkright is the regular carrier on route number one. Has 
carried the mail on said route since 1910. D. C. Work, the 
original carrier on route two, started in 1901 and is still per- 
forming that service. John C. Konkright is carrier on route 
three, has been in the service since May 1st, 1906. S. H. 
Beaver is the carrier on route four. Has been running reg- 
ular since April ist, 1904. Alfred Hiller who drives on route 
five started it November 2nd, 1903. Maurice Leger started 
route six December 15th, 1903 and is still in the service. 

Two racket or variety stores are run by Kolterman and 
Wilson, late additions to the corps of Seward business men. 

The Noxall Grain and Seed Cleaner and Grader was in- 
vented by T. J. Hatfield and F. N. Wullenwaber in the fall 
of 1907 and patent issued December 22, 1908. A manu- 
facturing company was organized and incorporated under 
that name by Seward business men in February 1909 with a 
capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. This factory em- 
ploys several men. The company manufacture the Noxal 
machmes which are sold throughout the north-west, also 
window screens, screen doors and medicated chicken perches. 

The following are professional men of Seward at the 
present time, and some of them may be numbered with the 
pioneers of the county while one of them is a Seward born 
citizen. L. H. McKillip, son of Daniel C. McKillp, Seward 
county's first attorney at law, was born at Seward, January 
21, 1879 and commenced the practice of law in 1903. T. 
L. and R. S. Norval are pioneers, and have been practicing 



226 HISTORY OF SEWARU COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

law since 1873. J. J. Thomas, Roy Schick, Edwin \'ail, 
H.D.Landis and S. C.Stoner are additions to the city s legal 
practitioners from 1891 to 191 j 

Dr. H. B. Cummins has {practiced his profession in Sew- 
ard for thirty-one years, was for some time associated with 
Dr. J. H.Woodward. Has served on the pension examining 
board for many years, has held a prominent place on the 
state medical board, and laid aside his M. D. in J900 and 
became a politician and was elected to the state senate 
where he served one term and then returned to where he was 
the most needed, the practice of medicine. Dr. J. Morrow, 
successor to Dr. J. H. Woodward, built an up-to-date hospital 
in 1 901 and has associated with him in practice his two 
brothers, Drs. M. and B. Morrow, the former in 1907 and 
the latter in 1913. Dr. S. E. Kagan entered the practice 
as a physician in Seward in the spring of 1902. He also 
has a hospital. Dr. C. E. Stockert and Dr. R. S. Hirsch 
commenced practice in the city in J913. Dr. O. H. Kent, 
Osteopath, commenced practice in Seward in 1907. Drs. 
R. P. Belden and C.K.Porter, dentists have practiced since 
1904. Drs. S. D. Atkins and C. D. Kenner since 1905. 

The only second hand store in seward is still conducted 
by its original owner, Jake Coehering, who started it more 
than twenty years ago. 

The business buildings of Seward are nearly all modern 
structures, some of them having been erected at a cost of 
thirty thousand dollars, while there are many less expensive 
houses which are of value to the city. 

There are one hundred and twenty-five artistic dwelling 
houses in Seward, built at a cost of several thousand dollars 
each, one recently built by John Zimmerer, cost thirty-tive 
thousand dollars. It is modern in every respect, entirely 
fire proof and is one of the most beautiful dwellings in the 
state. The citv has an estimated number of-six hundred less 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 227 

expensive, modern and valuable dwelling houses. 

M I L F O R D. 

Although Milford can not be called a city, it has retained 
its place upon the map as the second largest town in Seward 
county and one of the most beautiful j)laces in Nebraska. 
In view of this fact two of the state institutions are located 
there, the Soldiers Home and the Industrial Home, both of 
which will receive more attention farther along in this work. 

The town is doing a large business in the general lines 
of trade. The mill, which from the earliest pioneer days to 
recent years was a popular fiour producer, has been trans- 
formed into a factory of corn products, and as such is un- 
doubtedly one of the largest in the United States if not in 
the world. The business houses number fort\'. Modern 
residences thirty, while there are about two hundred com- 
fortable and pleasant but less expensive homes. There are 
three churches; Methodist, Congregational and Evangelical. 
Three grain elevators. Two banks, Farmers & Merchants, 
and Nebraska State Bank both occupying special bank build- 
ings of modern design and construction. Two hotels and 
two restaurants. It is estimated that the town has several 
miles of cement sidewalk. A centrally located park, town 
hall and opera house, fine high school, good system of water 
works and fire department. 

Milford has a ver}- fine third-class post office, the fixtures 
costing one thousand dc^llars has two hundred and forty-nine 
private mail boxes. In addition to this there are four rural 
mail routes go from the office every day. Number one and 
two of those routes were among the first established rural 
routes in the state. They were established July 15, 1899, 
with Chas. W. Funk as carrier on No. i, and H. J. Matzke 
on No. 2. The third route was started November i, 1900, 
and the fourth November 1, 1904 with William Smiley as 
carrier. The present carriers are Ed. Bishop on route No. 1, 



228 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Paul Swearingen on No. 2, Ed. Kline on No. 3, and Wnn. 
Smiley is still running No. 4. J.A.Coklin is the postmaster. 

The town has two lumber yards, both handHng coal; 
four general merchandise stores run by Kenagy & Kensinger 
who have been there twenty-hve years; Warnke & Haver- 
stock; Findley Mercantile Company and D. G. Erb. One 
exclusive grocery store is conducted by Roth & Co. One 
variety store. Bakery conducted by S. A. Langford. Two 
drug stores furnish medicine for the village and vicmity, one 
run by W. D. Alaxander who has been in the business over 
twenty-five vears; J. F. Bruning having been there since 
1906. There are two furniture stores, one run by the Troyer 
Furniture Company and the other by Joseph Mauel. David 
Boshart deals m poultry and feed and S. T. Sweasy is a 
dealer in poultry and cream. Babson, Dickman Implement 
Company and George Fosler sell harness. The pump and 
wind mill business is conducted by A. J. Weaver. The two 
hardware stores are managed by Joe Kribill & Co., and W. 
C. Klein. Real estate and insurance offices are conducted 
by J. H. Perkinson, and E. E. Ely. Charley Funk, Web. 
Wright and C. Smith are each running a barber shop. 

Like all other towns in the })resent day of death dealing 
automobile craze, Milford presents a prevalent popular front 
with three automobile garages, run respectively by the Mil- 
ford Garage Company, Schweitzer Brothers, and Fosler & 
Sanders. It is to be noted that Seward county has a great- 
er number, at the present time, of this kind of business 
houses, or as might be called shops, than any other one line 
of trade or business in the county, whether it is a mark of 
]3rogression or digression from the pioneer lumber wagon- 
spring-seat days. It is to be remembered however, that no 
one of those old, homely conveyances ever "turned turtle" 
and killed the driver or anybody else therefore those who 
enjoved their comforts were a longer lived race of people 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. '*229 

than the present automobile — we will not say carnks b'ut^ — 
crankers. 

Of professional men Milford has three doctors, and one 
dentist. It has two hospitals; also the Shogo Litha Springs 
the water of which is bottled and sold in some localities as 
being beneficial in' the treatment of some chronic afflictions 
humanity is subject to. 

DEDICATION OF THE SOLDIERs' HOME AT MILFORD. 

The dedicatory exercises which marked the beginning 
and opening of a new home for the honorable defenders of 
■the cause of freedom, and a grand manifestation of the Ne- 
braska peoples' appreciation of their services, took place at 
the Home in Milford, at 3 o'cloclk p. m., Tuesday, October 
8, 1895, in presence of a large gathering of patriotic citizens 
from various parts of the state. 

The exercises were opened by Rev. O. R. Beebe, G. A. 
R. Department Chaplin. H. C. Russell made the opening 
address, after which Department Comander Adams made 
the address of dedication. 

Governor Holcomb received the Home on behalf of the 
state, and Captain J. H. Culver was installed as commandant. 

Informal addresses were made by Congressman Andrews, 
Senator Sloan, Representatives Cramb and Roddy, Judge 
Wheeler, Mrs. W. A. Dillworth and Captain Henry. 

Patriotic music for the occasion was furnished by the 
Lincoln, Dorchester and Seward drum corps, and appropri- 
ate vocal music by a Milford quartet under the direction of 
Prof. Warner, editor of the Milford Nebraskan, and the vet- 
rians quartet of Lincoln. 

An enthusiastic camp fire was held in the evening, the hall 
being filled with veteran comrades and their friends. Timely 
speeches were made by Chaplain Beebe, H. C. Russell, Rev. 
F. J. Culver of San Francisco, G. E. McDonald, of Lincoln 
and others. The Home has answered the purposes for which 



250 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

it was intended in a satisfactory manner. Many of the old 
comrades have found a pleasant home there, enjoying its 
comforts to the end of life. There is at the present time one 
hundred and thirty-two soldiers and fourteen lady occupants 
of the Home. 

THE INDUSTRIAL HOME 

is a charitable institution of the state of Nebraska intended 
to aid wayward and indigent women and girls who have met 
with misfortune in life to a higher and firmer position, and 
to look after their offspring and see to it that their future life 
is properly provided for with homes. And no more beautiful 
place could be found in the state of Nebraska nor anv other 
state than it occupies at, or near the village of Milford. 

It is in reality as well as name an Industrial Home where 
the different home industries are taught, together with the 
science of nursing and the branches of common school edu- 
cation. It was founded by act of the state legislature in 
1887 and dedicated in 1888. 

Of this Home as well as the Soldiers Home I can sav I 
am reliably informed that they have, from their foundation 
to the present date, been generally conducted in a creditable 
manner by those placed in charge of them by the state, and 
it is not the mission of this work to record minute details of 
their management from year to year. They are state insti- 
tutions of which the citizens of the state should justly feel 
])roud. 

The populotion of Milford during the pioneer period 
ranged from one to three hundred while it now reaches about 
twelve hundred, counting the east side settlement. 

Milford is the only town in Seward county to support two 
post offices, and it has been something of a mvsterv whs- 
such a condition should have been inaugurated there. The 
second office was established in 1884 under the name of 
Grover,supposably in honor of President Grover Cleaveland, 



. HISTUKY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 231 

and notwithstanding the fact that it was onl}- about half a 
;nnile from the main post office of the town, it retained its 
place upon the map, becoming a money order office in 1900. 
There is the natural dividing line — the North Blue river — 
between Mil ford proper and Grover or East Milford, the lat- 
ter having the advantage of the railway station on its side. 

THE VILLAGE OF UTICA. 

The third largest town in Seward county was among the 
later laid out towns of the pioneer period. It was located in 
a favorable area of country and was blessed with an excellent 
business patronage, and had, for several years, but two 
competing shipping points and grain markets, Seward and 
(jermantown, and while it had no advantages of a natural 
kind or institutions of popular favor, it has progressed to a 
greater extent than any other town in Seward countv out- 
side of the county seat city. It is in point of time ten 
years behind Milford and seven years younger than Seward, 
all of which has been shown up in the pioneer town topics 
in this history. 

Utica has a population at the present time bordering 
closely upon one thousand. Its business houses number 
thirty-four, several of which are up-to-date brick buildings. 
It has two banks and modern bank buildings; one hotel, two 
restaurants; one opera house. The amount of its business 
may be estimated from the fact that it has three grain eleva- 
tors which are all doing a good business. Its residence 
buildings, modern and otherwise number two hundred. It 
has five miles of brick and cement sidewalks. The place 
has a modern high school building and supports one of the 
best twelve graded high schools in the county. It has four 
churches and church buildings of an excellent grade. The 
post office has two hundred and fifty private mail boxes and 
two rural free deliver}^ mail routes, the carriers being John 
Mikkelson on route number one and Robert Hunter on route 



232 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

number two. 

There are four general stores, run by R.E.Davis, Herman 
Zumwinkle, Kath & Harms, and Mr. Rau; Hornady & Sons 
recently established an exclusive grocery store. 

There are two drug stores reported, P. R. Wolf being 
proprietor of one and Dr. Homer Houchen rtins the other; 
two implement houses, one conducted by Craig & White, 
and the other by Herman Mundt; three cream, liour and 
feed stations, one by J. K. Greenwood, one by T. J. Shirley 
and the other by J. H. Casler; two blacksmith shops, John 
Hansen is the proprieter of one and Charles Bereuter runs 
the other; E. J. Bereuter deals in pumps and windmills; F. 
E. Patton is a dealer in poultry and eggs; T. L. Davis & 
Son manage a lumber yard; C. S. Shores keeps a livery and 
feed stable. There are three automobile garages run re- 
spectively by Craig & White, Bereuter & Son and Bert Birket. 

The professional men of Utica are Drs. Houchen, Mc- 
Conaghey and Kenner; Dentist Dr. C. E. Klopp; Attorney 
at law, A. O. Coleman. 

THE VILLAGE OF BEAVER CROSSING. 

Bv referring back to the write-up of "pioneer towns, 
schools and post ofiflces" in this work it will be noticed that 
Beaver Crossing was among the first places in Seward county 
to get a post office and store. And its future prospects to 
become one of the best towns in the county were bright and 
promising, but time soon dimned those prospects on account 
of its being several miles off from any rail road. And al- 
though it did a good "cross-roads" business through the pio- 
neer period it did not keep up, as a town, with other towns 
which had the advantages of railway facilities. And it seems 
that in the later period after the closing of pioneer times, the 
town was doomed to blights and darwbacks to impede its 
-progress and make it a dead one with all of its natural and 
,valuable advantages. The C, & N. W., or as it was then 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 233 

called the F. E. & M. V. rail road was opened through the 
town in 1887 and just why the place should have been mis- 
represented and boomed as a coming metropolis at that time 
and what benefit such misrepresentation was expected to be 
to the future of Beaver Crossing, is and will remain a m3^st- 
ery. In fact the town was almost rode to its death by an 
over growth, extremely wild and unreasonable. Although 
the general trade of the vicinity was abundantly supplied 
previous to the coming of the rail road by two general mer- 
cantile stores, shops and other business houses, there was a 
general rush from all directions for the best business loca- 
tions in the town. The racket of the saw and hammer was 
heard early and late in different quarters of the place, and 
business houses and dwillings were rushed up in short order. 
And Beaver Crossing like a stream of water m a liood season 
overflowed its banks and spread out over the low lands. 
Had those business men who were so anxious to get "in on 
the ground floor" in the new town with their business, stop- 
ped long enough to solve the problem of where the trade for 
so large an increase of business houses was coming from 
they would not made buildings to leave standing empty in- 
side of a year. But the great newspaper, the "Beaver 
Crossing Bugle," with its six pages patent printed and two 
pages, constituting the Beaver Crossing portion of it, printed 
at Milford, was the spokesman for the coming greatness of 
the place, and strange as it may seem, it displayed such in- 
ducements that a number of people overlooked the fact that 
the enthusiastic publisher of the great seven column paper 
was boom'ng a town that he had not got sufHcient confidence 
in to put in a press to print his paper on. 

The blasts from the "Bugle" were loud and long. It had 
several rail roads headed for Beaver Crossing and was very 
much alarmed for fear some undesiable road would slip in 
unawares. It also had the establishment of some kind of 



234 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

glass factory planed for the place, where the alkali and sand 
that was going to waste in the vicinity might be worked up 
into glass. But it boomed enterprises in one column while 
it devoted three columns to "Bugle" loud tunes for base ball. 
Two brick yards were established to produce brick for the 
coming "sky scrapers" of Beaver Crossing. And the build- 
ing of business houses went on with alackerty.and the revelry 
of the modern time i-^port grew to such proportions that the 
little, weakly supported burg had a subject to discuss as well 
as recreation for leisure hours when not engaged in wrapping 
up goods for customers. 

In viewing the outlines of the booming city (to be) and 
its business, I see the following new enterprises added to the 
place while others were expected to develope in almost the 
immediate future: M.Byington, general merchandise store; 
M. M. Johnson, general merchandise store; A. H. Parks, 
boots, shoes and grocery store; W. R. Davis & Sons, hard- 
ware, tinware and grocer}' store; McDougall & Callahan, 
hardware and tinware store; P. H. W. Corkins, drug store; 
W. J. Organ & Co., dealers in agricultural implements; J. 
H. Erford & Co., dealers in grain, coal and lumber; Nye, 
Englehaupt & Co., dealers in grain, lumber and coal; I. G. 
Chapin & Co., dealers in lumber and coal; F. M. Foster, 
new liverv stable; J. \V. Leisure, new livery stable; J. E 
Cloud, meat market; Joa Kanze, harness shop; Mrs. A. H. 
Parks, milllinery; Mrs. Frank Idorton, Millinery; The State 
Bank, T. E. Sanders, cashier; Dimery's Hotel, J. F. M. 
Dimerv, proprietor; Willis Bentley, blacksmith sho}); J. J. 
McVVilliams, blacksmith shop. Dr. F. A. (jreedy, physi- 
cian and surgeon. Dr. J.E. Phinney, physician and surgeon, 
with Dimery's opera house, Horton's brick block, Erford's 
elevator and other business houses in course of construction. 
Is it anv wonder such a bubble would burst and leave the 
place in a state of colapse? And that the town of Beaver 



HISTORY OF SEWARD CUUN TY, NEiiRASKA. 235 

Crossing has not improved since that colapse is evident and 
the reason obvious. It is difficult to resurect a dead town, 
especially after such discouraging circumstances have driven 
the best and most enterprising business men from it. 

Beaver Crossing passed through its pioneer period in a 
creditable manner after many years, but it entered and [)ass- 
ed through its devastating booming period during the one 
year of 1887 leaving it in a more helpless condition than that 
of the former period. And it was doomed to still farther 
depressions as results of its being unable to overcome mis- 
fortune, but it was on a fair road to recovery when along in 
1904 and 1905 it got an undesirable apportionment of busi- 
ness individuals that would be as sure death to a town as a 
grain of strychnine would to a rat. There were five in this 
consignment and they did not hesitate to engage in any 
kind of dirty spite work that seemed the least popular and 
had a banker and state senator at the head of it. In fact 
their addition to that kind of element constituted about half 
of the spite engendering dirty gang of the place. But the 
"last grain of sand" more than the town could bear was the 
addition to the newcomers of the renouned editor Fred. C. 
Diers, a man that could not look a hog in the face, much less 
a man. And this sickning dose to the already distressed 
and weakly little place would not have been so blightening a 
curse to its interests and welfare had he and his foolishness 
not been indorsed by those who claimed to be the whole 
town. It was well known that there was a committee of the 
gang running to different towns in the country hunting just 
such a character until he was found. And they did not only 
indorse his folly in advance of his coming, but they poisoned 
his mind with their own sour and depraved dispositions, 
giving the fool the impression that the whole town was at his 
feet and ready to surrender its interests and good name to 
serve him if he would only do their low down work and help 



236 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

them destroy a hated man's business who had presumed to 
question the honor and ability of the august personage who 
was so honorably and abley leading the crusade of spite and 
was short just the amount it required to make up Diers to 
complete the list of assistants. And Diers was no worse than 
the others, but his part of the program was more open to 
the public. He acted in accordance with their wishes and 
in doing so gave the honest citizens of the place a shamed 
face by calling himself and his silly paper their "Pride," or 
what amounted to the same thing "The Pride of Beaver 
Crossing. " 

Now this matter may seem small and unworthy of notice, 
but it is history and I see no way to avoid the issue. And 
it is large enough to amount to a dark page of damaging 
elTect upon the prosperity of the beautiful little village of 
Beaver Crossing. As the scheme did not result as it was 
mtended and expected to, in the injury of a private citizen, 
that individual being found amply able to stand b}' his rights 
and take care of himself, what else could the treachery, in- 
trigue, and low trickery, continued in for months by one-half 
or more of the so called business men of a town, amount to 
but serious injury to the prosperity of the place? To briefly 
state the case I will say that because one man had chosen to 
exercise his right as an American citizen and failed to sup- 
port a young ignoramous for an office he did not cosider him 
fit for, the young aspirant for ever ofihce in sight, commenced 
a tight against the aforesaid citizen and the element known 
as the gang took sides with him. The despised citizen was 
editor of the home paper and the work of spite progressed in 
the aforesaid search for a printer to — as they termed it — run 
said editor out of the business. Some of the more rash ones 
would not even consider a proposition to buy him out. They 
were after his scalp and nothing but the raising of his hair 
would appease their wrath. In their search the onl}' speci- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 237 

men of humanity they found that would engage in such an 
undertaking was this man Diers. But he had no money. 
In order to supply this deficiency they started a stock con- 
spiracy, the object of which was pubHcly stated, to be the 
boycotting and destruction of the said offensive citizens bus- 
iness. And each member of this conspiracy was required 
to put up fifty dollars or more to raise the funds to aid Diers 
in starting his part of the good work. He got the money 
and bought the printing plant from the former editor as he 
thought it was easier to buy him out than to run him out. 
And now the fun opens up in earnest. Diers had been led 
by the gang to think that they were the ruling element and 
that there was no possible chance for the other fellow to rise 
from the wreckage of his business, and Mr. Diers felt safe 
in the bosom of his admiring benefactors. But "it is a long 
road that has no turn," and the former editor purchased ^a 
new printing plant and started another paper called "The 
Independent Examiner, " which examined too close to the 
skin for the gang and they slowly but surely withdrew their 
incouragement from Diers and one by one sold and disposed 
of their business and sneaked out of the town, tour of the 
later arrivals having made their exite in about a year, Diers 
turning the paper over to his brother to close out, followed 
shortly after. And it is a matter worthy of note that the 
entire outfit that composed that gang, with the exception of 
one, and possibly two have found it to their interest to hunt 
another location. Why? Because their own ignorant con- 
duct had brought upon them and the town an unaccountable 
depression in business as compared with any other town in 
the county. "What you sow you shall reap. " This became 
apparent, the "running out" scheme took on a back action 
and amid the prevailing quietness a lot of sneaking out was 
in order. 

Beaver Crossing has three rural free delivery mail routes, 



238 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

all of which were estabHshed in J 903 with Lucian Wash -car- 
rier on route nunnber one, Pierce Dygert on route number 
two and W, A. Wilsey on route number three. Routes 
number two and three were established with carriers who 
had circulated the petitions, but after P. G. Tyler had suc- 
ceded in getting sufficient petitioners fcr the establishing of 
route number one he was turned dowMi, i)erhaps through ad- 
vice of some of "the gang" and a very unqualified young 
man given his route. The carriers now are Roy Huffman 
on route one, Pierce Dygert on route two and Al. Caswell 
on route three. These routes raised the post office from a 
fourth to a third class office and has done more good for the 
town than any other three things in it, although their estab- 
lishment was contrary to the wishes of nearly ever}' business 
man in the place, opposition to them bemg based on the 
grounds that with routes carrying mail to their doors farmers 
would not come to town. This was an opinion shared in to 
a large degree b\' other towns m the county which might be 
named, where the posmaster, following the requests of their 
tradesmen, threw the p)etitions when presented for the post- 
master's endorsement and forwarding to the proper depart- 
ment, into the waste basket. The result of this was that 
rural routes from other postoffices ran up so close to the 
limits of their village there was no room for them to get a 
route. And when they saw farmers, residing right close to 
them, driving away on Saturday evenings and othor times 
when they were expecting mail that they wanted sooner than 
the carrier would bring it, to the town their mail was deliv- 
ed from, the desire for routes was an increasing torment to 
them. Some of them got a short route or two, close round 
their town and some of them are still on the anxious seat for 
"just one route." The postoffice has two hundred and fifty 
private mail boxes, the same number it had twenty year;^ 
ago, the increas in this branch of the service having been 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NKHRASKA. 239 

confined entirely to the limits of the village bv the rural 
routes, G. \\\ Ncjrriss is the |)resent postmaster. 

The town has several substantial, and up-to-date business 
houses, and quite a number of the less portentious, chaper 
wooden buildmgs, relics of the previous mentioned boom. 

The amount of business Beaver Crossing is doing I am 
unable to state, but feel safe in saying that it is still doing a 
good "cross roads" business. There are many excellent men 
m the different branches of business and some of the other 
kmd too, just like any other town. I. L. Dermond is still in 
the mercantile trade and conducting it in the manner he has 
for twenty years; W. O. Johnson & Co., recent comers, are 
running a general merchandise store in the Eager building; 
one hardware and harness store is run by W. L. Cook; one 
hardware and grocery store by Earl Eager; one drug and 
grocery store by Chas. Simonton & Co. ; one drug store b\" 
T. H. Lyon; one furniture and implement store by James 
Evans; one furniture and implement store by Danskin & 
Lowe; one grain elevator run by the Nye, Schnieder, Eowl- 
er Company, and one by the Farmers' Grain Company; 
there are two banks, the Citizens State Bank and the State 
Bank of Beaver Crossing, both located in modern bank build- 
ings; one lumber yard conducted in the name of the Barstow 
Grain Company which recenth^ sold their elevator to the 
Farmers Grain Co. , and the Nye, Schnider Company runs a 
lumber yard; both grain companies sell coal; Chas. E.Gentry 
is the undertaker and sells pictures, frames, glass and no- 
tions; Chas. Luce keeps all kinds of jewelry; a new electric 
shoe shop is run by Oliver Hess; Ed. Warnke runs a first 
class bakery; there are two baiber shops, two ten cent stores, 
one opera house, one skating rink, one hotel, one livery and 
feed stabl-e, two hospitals; one by Dr. C. O. Pettv and the 
other is conducted by Drs.Doty & Hickman; two blacksmith 
shops; Jacob McCord runs the east shop and John Witter 



240 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

runs one on Mill street. Dr. Hewit is the dentist, and Judge 
A. Leavens, attorney at law. James Barnes deals in fresh 
and salt meats and ice. The town supports four automobile 
garages, and half supports one news and job printing office. 
E. A. McNeil is the editor and has been giving the town the 
usual heaping and running over measure of local newspaper 
support for the past ten years, and he at least has the auth- 
or's sympathy. (The statement, which has already gone in 
print on page 238 of this work, that the Beaver Crossing ru- 
ral mail routes were established in 1903 is an error. They 
started December ist, 1902.) 

Beaver Crossing has a population of about eight hundred, 
contains many modern residences, two pioneer residences, 
one occupied by George VVinand and family was built in 
1872 by Grand father Nichols, later becoming the property 
of Edward Maul, father of Mrs. George Winand; and the 
second pioneer building was built by Ross Nichols in 1869 
upon his homestead, and is now the Beaver Crossing Hos- 
pital, and many other good and comfortable dwellings. It 
has several very beautiful streets and shady lawns. Cement 
sidewalks extend throughout the town. It has a twelve grade 
high school and five churches, the Evangelical, Methodist, 
Catholic, Christian and Church of God. 

VILLAGE OF GERMANTOWN. 

Germantown in -H- precinct in the north part of the 
county is a pioneer town. It has had a fair share of the gen- 
eral prosperity of Seward county towns since the closing of 
the pioneer period. It has a population of about five hund- 
red; has one rural free delivery mail route, Charles Wyant 
being the carrier, and there are one hundred and twenty pri- 
vate mail boxes in the post office; it has a ten grade high 
school and two churches, the Lutheran Congregational and 
Evangelical. 
' Its up-to-date business houses number twenty and it con- 



HISTORY OF SEWARU COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 241 

tains one hundred residences. The Folley Theater, owned 
by Louis Meyers, is a modern structure fine enough for a city. 
The hotel is owned and managed by Paul Kafke; one res- 
taurant is under the management of Henry Zimmerman; one 
lumber yard, the Home Lumber Company, proprietors; two 
general mercantile stores, one run by Robert Beckman who 
has been in the business fifteen years; and the other is con- 
ducted by Meyers & Haus; two coal dealers, one the Home 
Lumber Company, and the other Louis Meyers, who runs 
one of the two elevators, the second elevator beino managed 
by the Farmers Grain Company; James Blackwood deals in 
pumps and windmills; Wm. Gannon runs the one barber 
shop; one furniture and hardware store conducted by Wm. 
Groats; one state bank, August Beckman cashier; one meat 
market, Adolph Haas proprietor; one blacksmith shop run 
by Carl Koch; one harness shop by Fred Roehorkasse; the 
town has two automobile garages; it has one of the best 
creameries in the state. 

Germantown was one of the early towns in the county, 
having been laid out in 1873, just after the B. & M. railroad 
was run through to Seward. 

THE VILLAGE OF PLEASANT DALE. 

This is one of the most correctly named villages in Sew- 
ard county. Its location in the narrow vale between the un- 
dulating hills of Middle creek, forms a shady nook, while 
the scenery up and down the valley is pleasing and attract- 
ive. A postofiice was established there in the early seventies 
by James Her, under the present name of the place, but the 
town was among the latest established towns in the county. 
The B. & M. rail road, first called the A. & N.,came through 
the dale in 1879 and the townsite was laid out in 1883, the 
post office was moved to town and a store opened. The 
school was later moved to town also, and a market for grain 
opened up and the town of Pleasant Dale was on the map. 



242 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Pleasant Dale at the present time is a bus}' little village 
of about two hundred inhabitants. Its post office has one 
hundred and fifty private mail boxes, and two rural free de- 
livery mail routes are in operation from it. W. L. Wallace 
is the carrier on route number one and Percy peterson on 
route two. 

The town has a graded high school, and two churches, 
the M. E. and Lutheran; it contains ten business houses and 
thirty-five residences. It has one elevator, managed by E. 
J. Newton; one bank, A. F. Akerman, cashier; one lumber 
yard, W. C. Newman proprietor; one hotel, managed by C. 
H. Oxbery; one restaurant run by C. McGowan; one harness 
shop by F. C. Thomas; one livery stable, A. C. Castle pro- 
prietor; one implement and hardware store, E. J. Newton 
proprieter; one grocery store run b}' J. \V. Dillenbeck; one 
general mercantile store by C. Uthe; one drug store by C. 
McGowen; one meat market; one physician. Dr. Wm. San- 
dusk}'; J. A. Gammell conducts a pump and windmill busi- 
ness. The town has about two miles of cement sidewalks. 
It is located in -I- precinct. 

VILLAGE OF STAPLEHURST. 

Staplehurst is in -C- precinct, in the northern portion of 
the county. It has developed a notable advancement in pro- 
gress since the pioneer period. In fact it can hardly be call- 
ed a pioneer town. It was founded in 1879, but was back- 
ward in growth for some time. Along about 1883 an ad- 
dition to the village was laid out by (}oehner & Company 
and business houses and numerous dwelling houses were er- 
rected. Two grain elevators were built, and the place begin- 
ing to show signs of coming importance as a shipping point, 
started upon a healthy and prosperous career. 

Staplehurst has a population of about four hundred. It 
has two good banks; a ten grade high school; three churches; 
one rural mail route; three general merchandise stores, one 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 243 

lumber yard, two meat markets, one hardware store, two 
blacksmith shops, one livery stable, and several other busi- 
ness establishments of more or less importance, indicating 
that the town has shared in the general new era prosperity 
of the county. 

VILLAGE OF TAMORA. 

Six miles west of Seward, in -F- precinct, is located one 
of the latter day pioneer towns of Seward county. It was 
founded and laid out in 1879. P. G. Tyler was its first post 
master and built the first residence in the town. The grain 
market of Tamora was started in 1879 by J. W. Scott who 
built a small gram warehouse and commenced the purchase 
of grain. A store was opened the same year by William 
Butler. An ellevator was built in 1881 by Morrisey brothers 
and T. W. Lowery built another the next year. It has at 
the present time about three hundred inhabitants, numerous 
dwelling and business houses, a good, 12 grade high school, 
three churches, several stores, one lumber yard, three eleva- 
tors and one bank, the Farmers Exchange. Tamora has no 
rural mail route. 

A small boom was started at Tamora in 1893. A large 
business building, covering nearly one business block in the 
village was commenced. It was to be almost a "sky scrap- 
er," to go four stories high above the basement. And the 
basement was built in fine shape, made of stone or cement, 
which was divided into several seperate store rooms by stone 
walls. The foundation for an immense structure could not 
have been excelled in any city, and it was currently reported 
that the project was being pushed by city capital, with a 
view to the removal of the county seat to Tamora, as it was 
near the center of the county. But it developed finallv that 
the whole affair was originated and planned by a young man 
whose brain was upset with success in a deal on the board 
of trade, and the castle never got higher than the foundation. 



244 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

I have now concluded the details of conditions of Seward 
county towns at the present time, 1916, which were written 
up in the beginning of this work as pioneer towns, and a 
comparison of their present situation with that of the former 
period may show the general advancement of prosperity 
throughout the county. 

The following villages were not pioneer towns, but dis- 
play the advanced state of progress since the close of the 
pioneer period. 

VILLAGE OF BEE. 

This village is located in a prosperous farming district, \n 
-B- precinct in the north-eastern portion of the county. It 
was founded in 1887; is on the Chicago & North Western 
rail road, has a population of about two hundred and fifty, 
and is as busy as its name indicates. The post office is 
fourth class and has one rural free delivery mail route. It 
has a good high school and two churches. Minnie Dunigan 
was Bee's first postmistress, and her father, Michael Dunigan 
was one of the founders of the place. There are a number 
of substantial busines houses, and about seventy-hve dwell _ 
ing houses. 

The general criterion of the business of a town in the 
west is its grain elevators and stock market. Bee has two 
large elevators and its stock market is second to no village 
in the county. It has one bank, one hotel, a blacksmith 
shop, one hardware store, a drug store, one lumber yard, 
one implement store, two general mercantile stores, two 
grocery stores, and other minor business enterprises. 

VILLAGE OF GOEHNER. 

This is the second modern time town laid out on the F. 
& M. V. rail road in Seward county. It was founded in 1887 
and bears the name of one of Seward's most prosprous busi- 
ness men, Hon. John F. Goehner, who represented this sen- 
atorial district in the state senate in 1884, and did very much 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 245 

towards securing the C. & N. W. railway line through the 
county, the town of Goehner being named in his honor. It 
is located in -K- precinct, almost in the center of both the 
precinct and the county, is seven miles north-east of Beaver 
Crossing and nine miles south-west of Seward. Its popula- 
tion is about one hundred and fifty. The business of the 
town is similar to that of Bee. It has a graded school and 
three churches. Two elevators, one bank, two general mer- 
cantile stores, one hardware store. It has no rural mail route. 

VILLAGE OF CORDOVA. 

Cordova is located in the south-west quarter of Seward 
county, seven miles south-west of Beaver Crossing. It was 
founded in 1887, the third new village on the line of the C. 
& N. W. rail road in the county. It was first called Hun- 
kinsville in honor of Benjamin Hunkins, an enterprising and 
respected early homesteader of the vicinity, but there being 
a town and postoffice of similar name in the state the town 
was renamed Cordova. Situated in an excellent area of 
farming land, and a prosperous community, the early enter- 
prises of the place soon placed it upon the map as one of 
Seward county's lively and growing towns. 

The early busmess establishments of Cordova were two 
Elevators; three general stores, managed respectively by 
Rodeman & Son, C. W. Hunkins, and Vaughn & Peterson; 
one drug store. Dr. C. W. Doty proprietor; one hardware 
store run bv Grafl & Goodbrod; one furniture store, one as- 
ricultural implement house, one harness shop, one lumber 
yard, one hotel, a bank, a barber shop, one blacksmith shop. 
Among the early public improvements was a good, graded 
school, and three church buildings were added in due time. 
In 1888 Joshua Warren, of Friend, erected a large wooden 
building from the wreckage of the old M. E. church building 
at that place; the lower part of the building was divided in- 
to three store rooms, and the upper part was used as an op- 



246 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

era house, the structure being called Warren's Opera House, 
or Cordova Opera House to distinguish it from Warren's 
Opera House in Friend. 

On a visit to Cordova in 191 3 the writer was much sur- 
prised and pleased by the apparant change and improvement 
in the town; especially the residence portion with its many 
neat cottages, attractive lawns and clean streets. The old 
Warren's Opera House, which was sold to Dr. E. G. Wat- 
son, and known in later years as Watson's Opera House 
and finaly destroyed by fire, had been ref:)laced by an impos- 
ing, two story brick building. This building has several 
store rooms on the lower lioor, a finely arranged opera room, 
lodge room, and other rooms on the second i^oor,all of which 
are reached by broad, modern stairways from both the front 
and rear part of the building. There are several other im- 
proved buildings in the place among which is the State Bank 
which is certainly a beauty for a town the size of Cordova. 
Aside from the improvements two familiar objects are to be 
seen — the little 8x10 shanty post office and the hotel. 

Cordova has a population of about three hundred. It 
has numerous business houses centered among a hundred 
residences, with cement sidewalks extending throughout the 
town. It has no rural mail route, 

VILLAGE OF RURV. 

This little vill is scarcely on the map, but holds a place 
among the business centers of Seward county. It is located 
on the B. & M. rail road, about half way between Seward 
and Milford, in -J- precinct, and has a rich and productive 
area of farming land surounding it, but the two larger towns 
draw much of its business away from it. However it is not 
a dead town as it shows many signs of life and activity. It 
has a grain market supported by two grain elevators; two 
stores, a post ofhce and such other places of business as are 
required to provide for the wants of the patrons of the place. 



HISTORY OF SEWARU COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 247 

By looking over the foregoing historical record of modern 
achievements in lines of trade in merchandise and farm pro- 
docts in the towns of Seward county together with the ad- 
vantages of public schools, churches and places of social and 
public entertainment, and comparing them with the condition 
in the early pioneer days, the extent of the great progress 
which had its origin in the gloom of pioneer sod houses and 
its growth through the many long years of hopeful enterprise, 
will become plainly apparent. In those early times markets 
for any kind of farm products were forty and fifty miles dis- 
tant, while one little store and postofhce in a sod or log house 
within an area of fifteen miles was considered a priceless 
blessing. Sod and log school houses in about the same area 
answered the purpose for churches, public halls, election 
booths and court houses. In the towns of Seward county at 
the present time there are twelve grain markets, supplied 
with twenty-six large grain elevators, any one of which could 
handle and store the amount of grain raised in Seward coun- 
ty in 1870. In those towns there are fifteen opera houses 
and public halls, thirty-eight churches, thirty general stores, 
thirty-five exclusive stores, handling groceries, hardware, fur- 
niture, clothing etc. And there are twenty-one rural free 
delivery mail routes delivering mail dail}' to ever farm in the 
county, while farmers are in touch with neighbors and the 
local markets of the county by telephone. 

The general reader of this work is invited to examine the 
conditions of the two periods as they are presented, bearing 
in mind at the same time, the fact that the advancements in 
the towns are the results of improved conditions throughout 
the rural districts. The improvements of farms and their 
products have made Seward county's prosperity. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



The Chicago & North Western Rail Road in Seward County. 



The C. & N. W. rail road was perhaps the earliest great 
railway system in the north-west. Its first operations were 
from Chicago up Lake Michigan to Green Bay, finally bran- 
ching out, in early rail road days, through the territory of Wis- 
consin. In the early sixties the North Western Company 
bought the Chicago & Galena line west and extended that 
line through Illinois and Iowa in 1866, reaching Council 
Bluffs in the fall of that year, being the first railway to reach 
the Missouri river from Chicago. It was the policy of the 
company to locate their own stations and to lay out and own 
the towns along its new lines, and twenty-five miles north- 
east of Council Bluffs, where the Bouyer and Missouri val- 
leys unite, forming an extensive area of bottom land, they 
founded a station and town, calling it Missouri Valley. From 
this point they extended a line up the Missouri bottom to 
Sioux City calling it the Sioux City & Pacific Rail Road. It 
also extended a branch line from the same point west, cross- 
ing the Mo. river at Blair, to Fremont as a short cut connec- 
tion with the Union Pacific rail road, saving the round-about 
trip bv way of Omaha and thereby shortening the distance 
from the far west to Chicago. They called this branch the 
Fremont & Missouri Valley Rail Road. This branch was 
finaly extended up the valley of the Elkhorn river and on to 
the Black Hills country when the road was renamed Free- 
mont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Rail Road. 

The company was always on the alert for paying enter- 
prises, which generally seemed to be successful, and seeing 
an opportunity to make another extension of their branch 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 249 

line, the F. E. & M. V. from F"reiTiont south-west through 
many miles of rich and productive Nebraska territorx^ and 
make a valuable connection with the Atchison, Topeka & San- 
ta Fee Rail Road at Superior, they commenced negotoations 
with counties through which the desired line might pass, for 
a bonus in the way of bonds for its construction. Propo- 
sitions were made to the precincts of each county throu^rh 
which the road would pass to build it provided the precincts 
voted to give them a specified amount of twenty year interest 
bearing bonds. It taxed the precincts of Seward count}^ six- 
ty thousand dollars, fifteen thousand dollars of this was re- 
quired of the city of Seward while ten thousand dollars were 
demanded from -G- precinct in which the city is located, the 
total for the city and precinct amounting to twenty-five 
thousand dollars. The road was only to touch one corner of 
-L- precinct therefore it was only charged five thousand, but 
the precincts of -B-, -K- and -M- were each held up for ten 
thousand dollars. The company made it clear to the minds 
of the citizens that they did not care to traverse their county 
with the road, but would do so provided the bonds were as- 
sured. And of course the yoters wanted the road more than 
the company wanted a paying line through thier lands and 
therefore when the propositions were voted upon they car- 
ried by large majorieties. The line was established and con- 
structed through the county in 1887. 

The North Western has added a large amount of taxable 
property to the county. It is undoubtedly worth all it has 
cost the precincts through which it passes, but they prac- 
ticially made the road or paid the railway company for doin'>- 
so. And it is a matter worthy of note that the North West- 
ern company has added to its own wealth many thousands 
of dollars more than it has to the counties along its Superior 
line. The C. & N. W. assumed its proper name about 
1895 when the name of F. E. & M. V. was dorpped. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



Seward County Farms and Farmers. The County's Agricultural Wealth. 
The Extended Drouth Period. Schools and School System. Gold 
Agitation. 

What has been said of Seward county: "There are but 
few, if any, more progressive, active, wide-awake and pros- 
perous farming communities than that represented by Sew- 
ard county, Nebraska. This district of country is possessed 
ot natural soil resources that have been spared from the hand 
of the soil robber. Its gentle undulating surface, which 
characterizes the greater portion of its area, with its finely 
planned and well laid out farms, nicely cultivated fields, bear- 
ing orchards, beautiful groves, home grounds with their large 
and elegant residences, lawns tastefully decorated with ever- 
greens, shrubs, vines and fiowering plants, all combine to 
tell the story of 'the home beautiful,' the farm home of Sew- 
ard county." — Twentieth Century Farmer. 

The forgoing estimate of the present conditions in Seward 
county is a true pen picture of the high standard of agri- 
cultural wealth gained by proper application to naturial re- 
sources in their time. In early years nature had here been 
lavish of those advantages which only required the develoj)- 
ins hand of human enterprise to yield rich and sure returns. 
There was no area of territory of equal size to that of Seward 
county in the domain of Nebraska capable of yielding more 
sure or more ample rewards to industry, or offered greater 
facilities for future support of a large population of enter- 
prising people. The present large fields of cereal grasses 
and grains |:)roduced each year bear ample testimony to the 
quality of the soil. Add to this the fact of easy culture. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 251 

speed}' and cheap transportation and good and never failing 
markets and the dream of the agricultural Utopians appear 
to be realized. The great anticipations of the first settlers 
and the feverish excitement occasioned by the construction 
of rail roads through the county, many visionary and delusive, 
have subsided into a more practicial view of things and there 
is, not only a rational appreciation of the facilities which na- 
ture has afforded, but a substantial and grand exhibition of 
that practicial application and energetic action which formed 
a sure presage of success, hence the "home beautiful, the 
farm home of Seward county," 

EXTENDED DROUTH PERIOD. 

The drouths of pioneer times in Seward county were dis- 
couraging to the earl}' settlers who felt keenly their damag- 
ing efiects. But they were not so blighting to vegitation as 
the dry seasons of later years. New ground that was just 
previously put under cultivation seemed to stand drouth much 
better than land that had been under cultivation until the 
soil was rotted down through the subsoil. And while the 
county was subject to an occasional drouth by which corn 
would be a partial or entire failure it seldom damaged small 
grain, and through that early period dry spells were not 
known to continue for a longer time than one season. And 
it was left for the modern era period to see all records of 
drouth extension broken and three years, 1893, 1894 and 
1895, of continuous dryness when crops in Seward count v 
were almost entire failures. During those three years there 
was but a small amount of snow fall in the winters and not 
enough rain in the growing seasons to lay the dust on the 
highways. This drouth period extended from the season of 
early vegetation in 1893 until January 31st, 1896 when an all 
night downpour of rain gladdened the hearts, at that unseas- 
noable lime, of weary watchers for gladdening, refreshing, 
long delayed moisture to at least refresh the earth. During 



252 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

this unparalleled dry period there was a redeeming feature in 
the fact that many other localities of Nebraska were not 
effected by the lack of moisture and raised an abundance of 
the necessaries of lite to spare their unfortunate neighbors at 
reasonable prices. 

SEWARD COUNTY SCHOOLS. 

We have seen the schools of the county in their primi- 
tiveness, taught in the manner and rude structures of the pi- 
oneer period, amid the surroundings of destitution and want, 
blazing the way for the coming unexcelled school method of 
which Nebraska boasts today. The school system which is 
being enjoyed by the young people at the present time is a 
native of the state. It originated as a pioneer by the ever 
increasing efforts and desire of the early settlers who labored 
to provide places of learning almost before they had a sod 
home. And that system has grown up with the country un- 
til it has reached an eminence unsurpassed in any state. 

And at the head of this school system stands the rural or 
district schools which annually reinforce the high schools, 
where the higher branches of English education are taught. 
Poverty is no impedimen tto learning in Seward county; every 
thing necessary for the pupils' use, even to the text-books, are 
included in the free system of education for those of all 
school ages. 

Seward county now has twelve high or graded schools 
and each precinct contains from four to seven district schools 
and all are housed in fine buildings. The high and graded 
schools accomodate many hundred students, affording super- 
ior advantages to those who wish an education, and numer- 
ous young people have taken advantage of the opportunities, 
and year by year well educated and sterling young men and 
women are given to the world by Seward county. 

GOLD EXCITEMENT IN SEWARD COUNTY. 

Real estate in some localities took quite a boom in price 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 253 

in the \'ears of 1895 and 1896 on account of the supposed 
existance of gold in paying quantities in the soil. Several 
incouraging items were published in local newspapers of Sew- 
ard county and at Crete, in Saline county. One of those 
items in the Milford Nebraskan, gave the following flattering 
information in regard to the amount of the precious metal 
found in the dirt in the vicinity of that village: 

"The dirt has stood the assayer's test in at least five trials 
on J. S. Dillenbeck's farm, ranging $57, $71, $96, |i6o and 
$196 per ton. These tests were made by experts of national 
reputation and are considered reliable." 

Unfortunately it was discovered that it is not all gold that 
glitters and the gold agitation went up the dark river to join 
the spiritulist coal anticipations at Milford in 1870. But there 
is no denying the existance of gold in the soil of Seward 
county, and it is being taken out already coined into dollars 
every year through the gold producing products of the farms 
of the county. And it is a fact that this system of obtaining 
gold from the dirt has advanced the price of Seward county 
real estate very much above the most sanguine thoughts of 
those gold boomers of 1895. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



Miscellaneous Items. Produce Statistics of iMid Pioneer Period. First 
Marriages in Seward County. Rattle Snakes More Dangerous Than 
Indians. Seward County Court House and Court House Propositions 
Death of Etta Shattuck. Rememberance of Henry Cashier. 



The following statement of acreage of land under cultiva- 
tion and crop Nneld in 1879, about the middle of the pioneer 
period, is from a report made to the B. & M. Railway Com- 
pany by Edwin Mclntire, of Seward, agent for the sale of 
that company's Seward county real estate. 

Total number of acres under cultivation in Seward county, 
109, 590. Number of acres in rye 1 283, yield 19, 240 bushels. 
Number of acres in spring wheat 43,825, yield 482,362 bush- 
els. Number of acres of barley 8,900, yield 170,900 bushels. 
Number of acres of oats 5,718, yield 227,720 bushels. Num- 
ber of acres in buckwheat 112, yield 2, 240 bushels. Num.- 
ber of acres in f^ax 2, 109, \neld 18,981 bushels. Number of 
acres in corn 46, 594, yield 2,096,280 bushels. Number of 
acres in'broom corn 160, yield 53 tons. Number of acres 
in potatoes 966, yield 36,840 bushels. Tame grass, timber 
and fruit trees. Blue grass, 17 acres. Timothy 1,272 acres. 
Clover 1,179 acres. Number of acres of cultivated timber 
4,500. Number of apple trees 30,500; pears 300; peaches 
26.450; plums 8,000; cherries 16,000; grapes 33,000 vines. 

These estimates were made on the returns of 1877 and 
the proportionate increase. 

The following market prices taken in June, 1892 is a fair 
sample of prevailing prices through the entire pioneer period, 
varying at times by a drop in the price of corn to fifteen and 
twenty cents, and eggs to three cents. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 255 

Market prices on that date for farm produce were as fol- 
lows: Wheat 55 cts per bushel. Corn 30 cts. Oats 23 cts. 
Flax seed 70 cts. Millet seed 45 cts. Hogs $4.00 per hun- 
dred lbs. Steers $3.00 to 3.50; cows and heifers 11,50 to 
2,00. Eggs 10 cts per doz. Butter 10 cts per lb. 

FIRST MARRIAGES IN SEWARD COUNTY. 

W. W. Cox states in his history that the first marriage 
in Seward county occurred on the 12th of November 1866 
at the residence of Samuel Long when his daughter, Eva 
was united in wedlock with John W. Pitt, C. J. Neighardt J. 
P. officiating. The first marriage in -G- precinct and the 
locality of the city of Seward was on the 20 of March 1867, 
at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis 
Moffit, the contracting parties being David P. Imlay and 
Miss Mary Moffiit, W. W. Cox, J. P. officiating. The sec- 
ond wedding in -G- precinct occurred April 20, 1867, at the 
home of the brides father, one and one-half miles north-east 
of the present city of Seward, the contracting parties being 
James A. Brown and Miss Sarah A. Imlay, W. VV. Cox 
officiating. In addition to the foregoing we wish to present 
-L- precinct's and southern Seward county's first marriage, 
being that of James G. Anderson and Miss S. Alice Reed, 
at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Roland 
Reed, near old Beaver Crossing, in -L- precinct, December 
]8, 1866, Judge J. L. Davison officiating. We are suspici- 
ous that Brother Cox didn't know there was anybody living 
down on the West Blue so early in the pioneer period. 

RATTLERS DANGERCJUS NATIVES. 

Rattle snakes were more dangerous in Seward county dur- 
ing the pioneer period than the Indians. The greater danger 
was with small children, with whom the bites of the reptiles 
frequently proved fatal. Chris Hoops, a farmer living about 
ten miles north of Seward, went out one dav, about the mid- 



256 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

die of June 1887, to his barn to gather some eggs, and in a 
nest that was partially hid from sight he felt sure there were 
some eggs and putting his hand in got an egg, and at the 
same time felt something like the prick of a thorn on his 
hand, and putting his hand in the nest for another egg the 
same thing occurred again. He thought nothing ot it, but 
after going to the house his hand began to pain him and one 
of his sons, learning of the occurrence, went out to see what 
was in the nest and found a rattle snake. After killing the 
snake the boy reported what he had found and wanted to go 
for a doctor, but his father objected, saymg there was no 
need of it. He was given some whiskey which had no effect 
upon him and he soon became delirious, requiring three 
men to hold him. Dr. Breed, of Seward was summoned 
and administered remedies which relieved his distress and he 
recovered after several days. 

While this was a case of recovery the following case was 
not so fortunate. A German lady whose name was given to 
us as Mrs. Swantzenburg, pioneer settler near the Seward 
and Butler county line, who was quite a help in the art of 
binding grain in the harvest field, went to the field, one day 
in 1873, to assist in binding some sheaves of wheat which 
had lain some time after being cut, and going to the first one 
kicked it to get it closed together for binding and received 
seven rattle snake bites upon her limbs before she could get 
away from the reptiles. A doctor was immediatly summon- 
ed but the unfortunate woman died before he reached her. 

In the following case which, perhaps is the only one ever 
known of a child sleeping all night in bed with a rattle snake, 
there is room for doubt of the reptile's temper at all times. 
Mark A. Armagost, section foreman on the North Western 
railway, at Beaver Crossing, son of James Armagost who 
settled on a homestead in Butler county, Nebraska in 1870, 
has the distinction of being the only living person who shared 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 257 

his bed when three years old with a rattle snake. The pio- 
neer homes were not air tight and many of them become 
open enough to admit gophers and rats. One night in the 
Spring of 1871 young Mark was put to bed and in a short 
time he called his mother and told her there was a snake in 
his bed. She didn't think so and told him to go to sleep. 
He did so and in the morning after he got up and his mother 
went to make the bed she turned the covers down and there 
in the middle of the bed lay, nicely coiled up, the bo\7's bed- 
fellow with thirteen rattles on him. Rattle snakes do not 
bite; their upper jaw seems to be on hinges and when they 
become excited the upper jaw is thrown so it stands perpen- 
dicular, and in the upper part of the mouth is a small sac of 
poison, and extending form this are two fangs laying close 
together and closed with the point back, or inwards. And 
when the snake is angry that fang is thrown stright out from 
the roof of the mouth and he coils and strikes the fangs into 
his victim by jumping from his coil the two fangs sprading 
sufficient to emit the poison into the wound. It is possible 
and probable that Mark's bed companion could not open his 
mouth and strike when covered with bed clothing, and the 
warmth of the child's body soothed his anger. 

COURT HOUSE AND COURT HOUSE PROPOSITIONS. 

The pioneer part of this work mentions the first court 
house in Seward county, which was a result of the action of 
wide-a-wake citizens of Seward soon after the question of the 
location of the county seat had been settled in favor of that 
place. A court house was considered not only a necessity, 
but a help to seal the location of the county capital, therefore 
funds were procurred by brivate donations to errect a court 
house in accordance with the needs of the county, and it was 
built at a cost of twelve hundred dollars, but was not suppos- 
ed to have been any expense to the county. And at that 
time the house was an expensive structure. Had it been 



258 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

built to correspond with the general wealth of the county as 
it would if the expense had been boren by the county, it 
would have been constructed of sod, the same material as the 
school houses, churches and dwellings were made of. But 
It was a frame building, well arranged with rooms for the 
difierent county officials. It was found after a few years that 
there was such an accumulation of records and other valuable 
county books in the different offices that there was not only 
insufficient room for them in the old house, but great danger 
of their loss by fire, therefore rooms were rented in some of 
the more fire proof buildings and used for all the purposes of 
a court house. And the old, and first Seward county court 
house was abandoned and finally sold and used for a black- 
smith shop. The county continued to rent rooms for a court 
house from about 1879 to 1906, and during that period there 
were two propositions submitted for the issuing of bonds to 
build a court house at the expense of the county, but the 
people seemed too well pleased with paying rent to put the 
same money into a building of their own and defeated the 
propositions at the poles. 

Along in 1904 a new proposition to issue county bonds 
to the amount of $100,000 to build a court house and jail, 
the former to cost $88,000 and the latter $12,000, was sub- 
mitted to a vote at the general election. In the mean time 
following the defeat of the last proposition in 1901, voters of 
the county had brushed the scales from their eyes sufficient 
to see the unnecessary extravagant waste in renting, and add- 
ed to this Lewis Moffitt had bequeathed a large and valuable 
farm to the county to be sold after his and his wife's death, 
the procedes to be applied on the building of a new court 
house and when the vote was taken the proposition for the 
issuing of ten year optional bonds carried by a vote of 2,406 
for to 1,228 against. The court house was built in 1905 and 
1906, an illustration of the structure is presented on the op- 
posite page. An error in handling the funds for building the 





SEWARD COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 



The grand structure of which the above is a fair illustra- 
tion was erected in 1905-1906 at a cost of eighty-seven 
thousand, two hundred and twenty-five dollars. It is com- 
posed of Indiana white stone and is as near fireproof as it is 
possible to make any building. The expense of the building 
was borne in a large degree by Lewis Moffit and Wife, 
pioneer settlers and enterprising founders of the city of 
Seward, who bequeathed the proceeds from the sale of a 
large and valuable farm for that purpose. And the court 
house stands today as a monument to the memory of those 
noble and worthy early settlers. 



260 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

jail delayed its erection until 191 5, about ten years. The 
following taken from a Seward newspaper dated May nth, 
191 5, is undoubtedly a correct version of the transaction: 

"After being lost to sight for nine years the missing 
court house and jail bonds were found Tuesday in the vault 
of the First National bank pigeonholed among some old pa- 
pers where they had been handled many times perhaps, but 
mistaken for old insurance policies. At the time the court 
house was built an agreement was made between the trust- 
ees of the Lewis Moffitt estate and Mrs. Lewis Moffitt by 
which the trustees were allowed to sell 400 acres of land that 
Lewis Moffitt had set apart, the proceeds to be used in the 
erection of the court house after Mrs. Moffitt's death. By 
an agreement of the trustees and Mrs. Moffitt, $15,000 of the 
county bonds was to be reserved and the interest on same 
was to go to her support during her lifetime. Hov/ever, Mrs. 
Moffitt died not long after and from that time 1 10,000 of the 
bonds could not be found and no coupons were ever presented 
at the county treasurer's office for payment. Several times 
when a movement has been started to erect a new county 
jail the matter has been held up because of the missing bonds. 
This year, however, the county board of supervisors took up 
the matter of building and appointed a committee to try to 
locate the bonds with the result that at last they were found." 

With the finding of the lost bonds the building of the 
new jail was almost immediatly commenced and rushed to 
completion during the season of 1915. 

DEATH OF ETTA SHATTUCK. 

The subject of this sketch, whose suffering and tragic 
death should touch the sympathetic heart of christiandom, 
was a young lady resident of Seward. She made a living for 
her father, an aged and helpless veteran of the war of the 
rebellion, by teaching school. In the winter of 1888 she was 
teaching a country school. On the evening of January 12th 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 261 

that year, during the fierceness of that terrible calamitious 
fury of wind and bh'nding snow, she dismissed her school. 
In her misgivings for the safety of the children her kind heart 
was touched and she thought only of their wellfare, and after 
making every possible effort to guide them safely to their 
homes she became bewildered and lost, wandering for hours 
in that fearful night, she come upon a haystack in which, with 
trembling limbs and frozen fingers she burrowed sufficient 
space to admit her exhausted body, where without norish- 
ment, suffering with her frozen feet and limbs she laid for 
forty-eight hours, and until found by a searching party. She 
was taken to her home at Seward where it was found neces- 
sary to amputate her limbs, but she died from the effects of 
the severe and dreadful ordeal, February 7, 1888. Death 
relieved her, after nearly a month of intense suffering in mind 
and body, and she was laid to rest at Seward where her aged 
and heartbroken father, Benjamin Shattuck, shortly followed 
and was laid by her side. 

REMEMBERANCE OF HENRY CASHLER. 

Many of those who were young people living in the south 
west quarter of Seward county in the early seventies will re- 
member Henry Cashier who lived at the York and Seward 
county line, and who was found dead in his house, Monday, 
November 11, 1901; at whose pioneer home they frequently 
met to enjoy an old time social dance while he sat with his 
good wife by the stove and listened to the music of his son 
John's fiddle, smoked his cob pipe and watched the grace- 
ful dancers and the great clouds of dust from the sod house 
floor, set afloat by their merry feet. We distinctly remem- 
ber many occasions of the kind when with others we faced 
the cold north-west winds five miles to his home, well know- 
ing that when we reached there we would meet with a warm 
welcome and a good fire. The kind old people are both 
dead now as are the times when we enjoyed those pleasures 



262 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

at their home. Two sons, Alex, and John, still living, and 
six daughters, Mrs, Paul Peterson, Mrs. George Bray, Mrs. 
Laurance Deidle (now dead), Mrs. White, Mrs. Mann and 
one we knew as Miss Belle, survived to mourn the departure 
of the most kindly parents. 

POULTRY AND EGGS IN SEWARD COUNTY. 

This has become recognized during the past few years as 
one of the standard and most profitable adjuncts to the pro- 
ducts of the farm. Car loads of eggs and poultry are going 
out of the county every week and good prices are bemg re- 
turned for them to the farmers and poultry raisers. There 
was a time, which includes the period from the earliest set- 
tlements m the county to as late as 1890, when the profits 
from the feathered flocks on the farm were considered only 
from the place they filled on the farmer's table. As late as 
the spring of 1880 we hauled twenty dozen eggs twelve 
miles' to the Seward market and sold the entire consignment 
for sixty cents and took pay for it in goods at one hundred 
per cent profit to the dealer — net thirty cents for the twenty 
dozen eggs. We didn't think it was a big deal only so far as 
the eggs were concerned in it, but we had more eggs than 
we could eat and our neighbors were supplied in about the 
same way. We packed those eggs in bran to prevent them 
from being broken, and when we looked at the proceeds from 
their sale on our return trip home we regretted that we didn't 
pack them in rocks. But times change and so does the 
price of eggs. The time when we sold eggs for three cents, 
or more properly, one cent and a halt a dozen because we 
had more than we could use, has changed and we now think 
we are luckey it we can buy what we can use for one cent 
and a half each. And egg producers feel very much de- 
pressed if eggs drop occasionally to twelve cents per dozen. 
But they seldom get that low in price these days and hold so 
much value as to be worth packing in silk tissue. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



The Beaver Crossing Telephone Company and Its Change to Seward 
County Telephone Company and Final Sale to The Lincoln Tele- 
graph and Telephone Company. Additional Karly Settlers. 



The Beaver Crossing Telephone Company was incorpor- 
ated March 2nd, 1903 with a capital stock of live thousand 
dollars. It was to continue twenty years unless sooner dis- 
solved by vote of the share holders. And while the company 
seemed not to have been dissolved its name, for some rea- 
son, was changed to Seward County Telephone Compan3^ 
while its original officers continued in its service. This 
change was made on August 3, 1903, five months after the 
company's organization. 

The first annual meeting of the Seward County Tele- 
phone Company was held in Beaver Crossing, January 5th, 
1904. The interest at this meeting was greatly manifested 
by the presence of many of the stock holders from various 
parts of the county. The meeting was called to order by 
the president. Dr. C. W. Doty, at 10 o'clock, a. m. The 
books of the Company were carefully examined and the Com- 
pany found to be in a flourishing condition. A dividend of 
ten per cent was declared and paid to the respective stock- 
holders. The election of officers was held in the afternoon 
of the same day, Jacob Geis being elected president, Henry 
Wellman vice-president, J. P. Mayhew treasurer, and J. H. 
Ritchie secretary. Henry Cake, John Stcckley, E. H. 
Stra^'er, Chris Klem and Paul Bulgrin were elected directors. 

The meeting adjourned with a rising vote of thanks to 
the officers who had so faithfully served the ccmpany during 
its short existance. 

During this meeting the retiring president. Dr. C. W. 



264 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Doty delivered a speech, outlining the then prosperous con- 
dition of the Company and its bright prospects for the future, 
a part of v/hich we quote as a historical resume of the early 
telephone work in Seward County: 

"Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Seward County 
Telephone Company: — -Ten months ago your company came 
into existance. Its increase in so short a period has been 
marvelous. With a paid up capital of nearly nine thousand 
dollars, a gain of close to four thousand dollars since its first 
organization regardless of its constructive expense, its pros- 
pects for future developements are very flattering. And we 
feel and judge the promise of greater strides ,for our system 
during the present year of 1904 from the success gained in 
the few months of its existance. The building of lines has kept 
pace with the increase in stock, reaching east, west, north 
and south until we now have about sixty miles of polles and 
five hundred miles of wire. In addition to an excellent ex- 
change in this city we have reason to expect a fine one in 
Milford in a short time, and as rapidly as finances will admit 
we will reach other towns of the county and especially the 
county seat city. In the past rural lines have done exceed- 
ingly well which is very incouraging for the future. 

"Our outside connections are excellent, reaching Saline, 
York and Filmore counties with their valuable towns and ru- 
ral districts. And the day is not very far distant when we 
can reach far beyond our neighboring places, thus increasing 
the earning capacity of our own system. The treasurer's re- 
port has shown what we have gained this season and in view 
of the fact that our earning capacity has been brief,its increase 
reaching one hundred and twenty-five phones placed and in 
working order, is very assuring of many more to follow soon. 

"The toll business is showing a steady gain each month, 
the secretary's books showing an existing dividend equal to 
ten percent, Can you as stockholders have invested your 



HISTORY OF SKVVARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 265 

money better? I think not. With the dividend thus de- 
clared it ought to increase the coming season, as our plant 
has b^en'bjt pirtiilly in oj)3ration during a part of the past 
year. 

"We have taken in at some expense the Star Telphone 
line of Milford and feel that the act was fully justified and 
has been the means of harmonizing the Seward County 
Compan\' and its rival on the east. With this consolidation 
we have been enabled to invade one of the richest fields for 
telephone construction we have as yet encountered. 

"Except in certain localities, telephone construction is a 
difficult proposition, many failing to comprehend the utility 
of it. But our contention is its many advantages for the up- 
building of society, as well as its many business facilities. It 
is an educator for the young, keeps the older members of the 
family more contented to stay at home, and prevents crime 
b}' placing the rural districts in close touch with peace offici- 
als. To the farmer it is a source of profit, placing him in 
close communication with his fellow workers and the markets 
of the world, in addition to which it advances the value of 
his farm lands." 

The Seward County Telephone Company was among 
the most prosperous associations of the county, and its en- 
terprises the most successful. It had a carrer of about eight 
years of financial prosperity. However the line was sold to 
the Lincoln Telegraph and Telephone Company in 1912. 

It has been a difficult matter with the patrons of the Sew- 
ard County Telephone, as it has with a part of the stockhold- 
ers in that enterprise to understand why it was closed out to 
the Lincoln Company. The business had been worked up 
to a point of permanent profit to the Seward county people, 
and was giving the highest grade satisfaction to its patrons. 
And while its service was as good as the best, no patron 
need be afraid of having his telephone disconected in the 



266 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

middle of the night, or secretly at any other hour, because 
he has failed to comply with new rules established in the 
middle of the night and kept a secret from him, of making 
monthly payment of phone rent six or seven days before it 
was due by previous established rule of payment. Arbitrary 
treatment of patrons was not resorted to in the management 
by the home company of telephone business and we are glad 
to mention the company's clean record. 

ADDITIONAL PIONEER AND EARLY SETTLERS. 

The followmg early settlers in Seward county were over- 
looked in our previous mention of settlements: 

In -G- precinct, J.J.Hamlin settled in 1883; -K- precinct, 
Ethan Atwater, an early pioneer; Josiah Grififiin settled in 
1879, George Heid in 1883. -L- precinct, VVm. J. Hannah, 
Roland Terrill and John Terrill in 1883, F. M. Foster in 
1869, Pierce Dygert and Wm. Ward 1872, Oliver Dickey 
in 1879. -M- precinct, Henry Bridenball and two sons, 
Henry and Fred, and Danforth Brown were 1873 settlers, 
Chris Klem settled in 1880, Joseph Crone, Leonard Wehr, 
J. T. Davis, VVm. Flack and Chas. Flack all settled in 1883. 
-O- precinct, Edward Healy settled in 1869, Chas. Smith in 
1870 and Riley Hornady in 1883. 

Those of the above early settlers who were Union soldiers 
in the war of the rebellion: J. J. Hamlin, Ethan Atwater, 
and Edward Healey. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



At'diiional List of Deaths of Early J^ettlers of Seward County. P'atal Acci- 
dents and Untimely Deaths. Suicides. 



Daniel iMillspaw, one of the 1864 ranchers, whose ranch was located 
on the east half of the north-west quarter of section two, iu -M- precinct, 
row in the west part of the village of Beaver Crossing, where he resided as 
a pioneer homesteader many years after the ranch period, died at Pagosa 
Springs, Colorado, April 14, 1893. His death was the result of a fall from 
a wagon on which he was riding two weeks previous to his death. He 
was on his way to Pagosa Springs intending to bathe for rheumatism, and 
in a rough place in the road one wheel of the wagon struck the root of a 
stump while the wheel on the opposite side of the wagon went into a chuck 
hole, throwing him off and breaking his collar bone in two places. He re- 
ceived all the care and attention possible, but on account of his advanced 
age he was unable to recover from the accident. His good wife preceded 
him to rest several years, an only daughter, Rosa McClellan surviving them 

Philip Weinand an 1870 homesteader in -M- Precinct, died at his home 
in Beaver Crossing, March 1, 1910. A wife, one son and three daughters 
remained to mourn his departure. 

John Atwood, an 1867 homestead settler four miles north of Milford, 
died in Dayton, Washington, March 11, 1902, aged fifty-eight years. He 
was one of four brothers, the others being H. C, Lee R. and Silas S. At- 
wood who all came to Seward county about the same date. He moved to 
the state of Washington in 1885. 

Elmer E. True, an early settler in the south part of -M- precinct, and 
and for many years a resident of Beaver Crossing where he was engaged 
for some time as a clerk in Eager's store, and later conducting the hotel at 
that place, died at his home, March 1, 1896, aged thirty-five years. He 
left to mourn his loss a wife and two small children. 

Mrs. Mary Atwater died at the home of her son, Ethan Atwater, four 

'miles north-east of Beaver Crossing, December 17, 1893, aged 81 years, 4 

months and 3 days. She was born in New York state August 14, 1812. 



268 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Henry H. Buck, an 1873 settler in -N- precinct, died at the home of 
his daughter, Mrs. J. A. Reams, near Beaver Crossing, November 8, 1894 
aged 67 years. He left and aged wife and several sons and daughters. 

On Saturday evening, about five o'clock, September 2nd, 1916, the citi- 
zens of Beaver Crossing were shocked by the report that Paul \\ . McNeil 
had been stricken down by heart failure. He was a promising young man, 
just past seventeen years old, son of Editor E. A. McNeil and wife, and his 
death was so sudden and untimely that it cast a shadow of sorrow over the 
entire community. Paul was a Nebraska boy, born at Orleans, May lOth, 
1899, and came to Beaver Crossing with his parents in 1908. He left to 
mourn his early departure a father, mother and little sister, Genevieve, who 
have the heartfelt sympathy of the public in their great sorrow. 

Following closely upon the shock over the sudden death of Paul W . 
McNeil came the report on Monday evening, September 4th, 1916, that 
Al. Caswell, mail carrier on rural route number three at Beaver Crossing, 
had died in his automobile while on his way home from the state fair. His 
death was thought to have been caused by ptomaine poisoning from food 
he had partaken of shortly before leaving the fair grounds. The day of his 
death was Labor Day, a national holliday and he was not required to make 
the trip over his mail route, therefore he attended the fair. Mr. Caswell had 
been carrying the mail about ten years. He was born in Providence, Rhode 
Island, September 27, 1869, and was 46 years, 11 months and 8 days of 
age. A wife, one son, an aged father, mother, two brothers and one sister 
were left to mourn his untimely death. 

Lewis Moffitt, a pioneer who settled upon a homestead, a part of which 
comprises the location of the city of Seward, in 1865, and gave a large and 
valuable farm to aid the county in building its tine court house, died at his 
home in Seward, Jure 14, 1900, leavir.g a wife who follcwtd him to rest 
in 1905. Mr. Moffitt had the first part of Seward laid out in 1867, and 
was the first postmaster for the new town, the postoffice occupying a part 
of his pioneer residence. 

James P. Dunham, many years a resident of Seward, was twice elected 
councilman and twice mayor of the city, died at his home there, October 
30, 1902. Mr. Dunham was born at Crawford, New Jersey, February 8^ 
1853. A wife and two children survived him. 

Mrs. Jacob Shaffer who had been a resident of Milford since 1879, died 
at her home in that place, July 23, 1906, a husband and adopted daughter 
surviving to mourn her loss. 



HISTORY OF SICWAKU COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 269 • 

Joseph D. Woods, an early settler at Seward where he conducted a ho- 
tel in pior.etr times, later moving to Stromshurg, Nebraska, died at his home 
in that city, iMarch 9, 1902, aged ninetv-three years. He was the father of 
William Woods of Seward. 

iVIary Jane Linch was born in Riley, Indiana, October 16, 1(S38, and 
was married to George hoster September 26, 1859. In October 1869 she, 
with her husband, settled on a homestead in -N- precinct, Seward county, 
where she resided until the time of her death, November 12, 1901. She 
left to mourn her departure a husband and two daughters. 

Lewis G. Castle, an 1870 homesteader near 1 amora, in -F- precinct 
died at his home in Seward, June 9, 1910, leaving a wife and one son. His 
wife, Emugene M. Castle followed him across the dark river, August 16 
1916, one son, Lewis Castle of Lincoln, surviving her. 

W'illiam P. Clapp settled on a homestead in -F- precinct in 1867 where 
he died April 10, 1875. He left a u'ife who passed to her rest at her home 
near 'Famory, June 13, 1916, aged seventy-four years, six months and thir- 
teen days. One son and three daughters survived her. 

Mrs. Ashford Holloway, ne Amanda Anderson, daughter of James and 
Jane Anderson who settled on a homestead two miles west of Seward in 
1867, died at her home m Seward, April 5, 1915, aged fifty-two years, eleven ' 
months and thirteen days. Mrs. Holloway spent all of her life except five 
years in Seward county. She left a husband, one son and one daughter. 

Mrs. George Ganr.on, u ho with her husband settled on a homestead 
near Staplehurst in 1872 and with him retired from the farm and moved to 
Seward in 1913, died at her home in that city, March 16, 1915, aged fifty- 
one years, nine months and twenty-three days. A husband, one son and 
two daughters survived her. 

Hon. Thomas A. Healey, an 1868 pioneer settler at Milford, died in a 
hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska, January 14, 1910, aged sixty-seven years, six 
months and seven days. He was elected to the state legislature in 1876, 
and served many years as Milford's postmaster, being in that service up till 
nearly the date of his death. A wife remained to mourn the departure of a 
kind and loving husband. 

Edward Healy, brother of Thomas A. Healey, also an early pioneer 
settler at Milford, died in Lincoln, Nebraska, June 8, 1906. He was born 
at Montreal, Canada, in 1840, and was about sixty-six years of age at the 
time of his death. Was elected county superintendent of pu'blic instuction 
in 1896 and served two terms. 



270 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Mrs. Silance, wife of Ira Silance, an 1870 settler in -K- precinct, died 
at her home in -L- precinct, April 4, 1896. A husband and three small 
children remained to mourn the departure of a loving wife and mother. 

Mrs. Jerry Coffey, a pioneer settler north-east of Staplehurst,died at her 
home, Saturday, May 6, 1905, of pneumonia, aged 52 years. A^husband, 
three sons and three daughters remained to mourn her departure. 

Dr. Alma M. Rowe, a well known resident of Beaver Crossing in the 
nineties, where with her husband. Dr. E. J. Rowe, she was a successful 
practicing physician, died at her home in Mississippi, in June, 1906, aged 
38 years. The Drs. Rowe moved to Mississippi in 1900. A husband and 
twin daughters, born at Beaver Crossing, survived her. 

Joshua VanDervort, an 1870 stteler on a homestead one mile south of 
Beaver Crossing, died at his home in Friend, Nebraska, Sunday, April 28, 
1905. Mr. VanDervort purchased a farm on section 15, -M- precinct, and 
moved on to it shortly after proving up on his homestead, where he resided 
until about 1894 when he retired from the farm and moved to Friend. A 
wife and daughter, Mrs. Avona Wehr, preceded him only a short time, to 
rest, the latter leaving a husband and two small daughters, one daughter, 
Mrs. Ora Crone of Friend, surviving to mourn the departure of a kind and 
loving father, mother and sister. 

Edmond L. Blanchard was born in Florida, Mass., June 15, 1856, and 
died at York, Nebraska, Friday, May 5, 1893. Mr. Blanchard was a pio- 
neer settler in York county, but moved in an ealy day to Seward county and 
settled on a farm in -L- precinct where he resided many years, returning 
to York in 1892 he spent the short remainder of his life in that city. His 
remains were brought to Beaver Crossing where funeral services were held 
after which they were laid to rest in the Beaver Crossing cemetery. 

B. F. Perry was born in Kentucky, March 4, 1841, and came to Ne- 
braska and settled on section 7, rail road land in -E- precinct in 1873. He 
retired from the farm and moved to Tamora where he resided till the end 
of life, November 11, 1898. He left a wife, one son and four daughters. 

Samuel Manning, one of the early pioneers of Seward county, died at 
the home of his son in Seward, Thursday, April 27, 1905, aged 82 years. 
He left a wife, one son and two daughters. 

Weldon Ragan, a pio.neer settler in Seward county and for many years 
a business man in the village of Utica, died at his home April 4th, 1905. 

Mrs. David Stutzman, a pioneer resident of Milford, died Sunday, April 



HISTORY OF SEWAKU COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 271 

1, 1903. Her husband, David Stutzman preceded her to rest about seven 
years. Seven sons and seven daughters survived them. 

Patrick Smith died at his home in -L- precinct, four miles north-west of 
Beaver Crossing, Wednesday, August 29, 1906. Mr. Smith came to Sew- 
ard county in 1884 and settled on the farm where he spent the remainder 
of his life. He left a wife, three sons and four daughters, his wife follow- 
ing him to rest, January 3, 1915, aged sixty-nine years, eleveen months 
and ten days. 

Julia Saxon Hamlin, wife of J. J. Hamlin, a pioneer settler who retired 
from the farm and moved to Seward in 1904, died at her home there Thurs- 
day,' March 11, 1913, aged 75 years, 4 months and 1 day. She left a hus- 
band and two daughters, Mrs. W'm. Mooney of Montana, and Mrs. L. S. 
Konkright of Seward. 

Louisa Jacobine Goeting,an early settler with her husband in -1- precinct 
died at her home in Germantown, May 17, 1915, aged sixty-six years, nine 
months and sixteen days. They retired from the farm just a short time be- 
fore her death and made their home in Germantown. She left a husband 
and seven sons and daughters. 

Warren Brown, an 1866 homesteader in -H- pracinct, retired from the 
farm and moved to Germantown in 1892 where he passed to rest May 24, 
1904. 

Robert Walker, a pioneer settler in -L- precinct, died at the home os 
his son James in that precinct, August 12, 1880, aged 77 years. 

Roland Terrill, another noblemen passed through the valley and shad- 
ow to that eternal home where God is the ruler, February 14, 1916, aged 
seventy-nine years. He came to Seward county in 1884 and settled in -K- 
precinct, near Goehner and in 1890 located on a farm in • L- precinct 
where he resided until the date of his death. His wife, Hanna A. Dunn 
Terrill, preceded him to rest nearly six years, having passed away April 7, 
1909. One son, Henry Terrill, dieing about a year previous to his father, 
three sons survived him. 

John 1\ Davis settled in the south part of Seward county in 1879, and 
engaged in farming for several years. In 1892 he moved to Beaver Cross- 
ing where he followed the trade of mason and plasterer. He died Febru- 
ary l4, l9l6 after about four years of continued sickness. He left a wife 
and several sons and daughters. John T. Davis was one of Seward county's 
grand pioneers, respected by all and disrespected by none who knew him, a 
kind, innofensive citizen and neighbor. 



272 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

Joseph Lanning, an 1870 settler at Beaver Crossing, died at the home 
of his son Edward, in Lexington, Nebraska, December 12, 1900. Mr. 
Lanning was about ninety years of age. Two sons and one daughter sur- 
vived him. 

|. B. Seavey, an 1870 homestead settler on the south half of the south 
east quarter of section ten, -M- precinct, died at his home, Monday, Febr- 
uary 27, 1888. Mr. Seavey left a wife, daughter and one sor. 

A. ]. Palmer, a pioneer homestead settler in -L- precinct, died at his 
home, Tuesday, May 10, 1887, aged sixty-nine years. Mr. Palmer planted 
corn until noon the day of his death, and shortly after going to the house, 
sank down and expired immediatly. 

Charles H. Smith, an 1870 homesteader in -M- precinct, died in Cali- 
fornia, June 18, 1916, aged seventy-nine years. He was a shoemaker by 
trade and worked at that business in Beaver Crossing in an early day. 

Jacob Geis, who settled on rail road land in -K- precinct in the pioneer 
davs, where he improved one of the tine farms of Seward county, died at 
St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in Lincoln, Nebraska, August 17. 1916, aged 
seventy-two years, three months and nine days. He was married January 
3l, l87l to Mary Karl. She preceded him to the great beyond, at their 
home January 5th, l90L Five sons and two daughters survived them. 

FATAL ACCIDENTS AND UNTIMELY DIATH.S. 

The first untimely deaths in Seward county, were those of the two 
young sons of Conrad Grots, sr., Henry and Conrad, who resided in -H- 
precinct, both being killed by one bolt of lightening, July l4, l869. 

SHOOTING OF AMOS RUMSEY AT UTICA. 

At a celebration in Utica, July 4, l879, Amos Rumsey, a young son of 
Mr. and Mrs. WMlliam Rumsey,- was standing behind a young man who 
was shooting at a target with a revolver. The marksman getting a little 
artistic in the handling of his weapon, extended his hand with the gun over 
his head with a fancy Borish as he was about to shoot, and accidently pulled 
the trigger, discharging the gun, the ball striking young Rumsey in the side 
of the neck and passing downwards lodged in the spine from which the low- 
er part of his body and his lower limbs were paralized. In addition to the 
entire medical profession of Utica, Dr. Woodward of Seward was called, 
but there was no relief for the unfortunate young man. He was taken to 
his home at Beaver Crossing, where he lingered a helpless cripple for four 
years when death relieved him of his suffering. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 273 

ORSON C. FISH ACCIDENT. 

Orson C. Fish, who settled on a homestead in -L- precinct in 1869,and 
was a resident for many years, moved to Collins, Iowa in 1894, died Sat- 
urday, November 9, 1895 from injuries received by being run over by a 
thrashing engine. He had went under the engine to couple the machine 
to it and was laying down in front of one of the drive wheels, and another 
person started the engine, the wheel passing over his body. It seems like 
a miracle that he was not killed instantly, but he was favored by being in an 
old deadfurrow or low place in the gorund. He lingered a few days, dur- 
ing which time he underwent a surgical operation. He left a wife, three 
sons and four daughters. 

JOHN HUFFMAN. 

John Huffman, a sixteen year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. 
Huffman, pioneer settlers in the vicinity of Beaver Crossing, with other boys 
had been out hunting and on their way home were overtaken by two neigh- 
bors in a wagon who invited them to ride. Young Huffman going behind 
the wagon laid his gun in with the muzzle toward him and the hammer 
coming in contact with the wagon bo.x dischared the gun, the contents strik- 
ing him in the face and side of the head. He was hurridly taken to town 
and the entire medical profession of Beaver Crossing called to his assistance 
but he gradully sank until between one and two o'clock the next morning, 
Tuesday, February 20, 1906, his spirit took its flight to the one who gave 
it. He was born and always lived at Beaver Crossing. He left to mourn 
his untimely death, a father, mother and five brothers. 

II. W. BENTLEV. 

H. \\ . Bentley, one of Beaver Crossing's respected and valuable citizens 
met death while at work in his blacksmith shop, about 5 o'clock, p. m., 
Friday, April 5, 1895, by the bursting of an emery wheel upon which he 
was polishing a plow shear. Xhe stone was run by a steam engine and 
just previous to the accident Mr. Bentley said to the boy who was assisting 
him that the wheel was not running fast enough and to "put on more steam" 
which were the last words he ever said, a portion of the emery wheel strik- 
ing him in the head and killing him almost instantly. The wheel was 
comparatively a new one, having been used but a few times. It was brok- 
en in three pieces, two of which were found in the shop, the other having 
made a hole through the roof, was found several rods east of it. Mr. Ben- 
tley left a wife and two small daughters to mourn his untimely and tragic 
death. 



274 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 

DEATH OF MATHEW MILLSPAW. 

Mathew Millspaw, an early resident of Seward county, met with what 
proved to be a fatal accident at Goehner, November 23, 1892. He was 
operating a sheller and shelhng corn when one of his coat sieves was caught 
in the machine, drawing his arm in and crushing it. The arm was ampu- 
tated, but he died from the effects of the injury. He was a brother of Dan- 
iel Millspaw, early pioneer rancher. 

UNTIMELY DEATH OF MARY STRAYER. 

A very sad fatal accident occurred just north <,f the city limits of Sew- 
ard Saturday evening, August 18, 1894. John M. Strayer and family, con- 
sisting of wife and three daughters, resided one mile north of the city. On 
the evening named, Mrs. Strayer and the three daughters were out riding 
in a buggy, when one of the girls in turning round to return home, made 
too short a turn, tipping the vehicle and throwing the occupants all to the 
gronnd. The mother and two older girls were slightly injured while little 
Mary, the youngest, sustained a dislocated neck. A docter was quickly 
summoned, but arrived only in time to see her breathing her last. She was 
between four and five years old, the pet of the family and neighborhood. 

DEATH OF PETER HUBERTUS. 

Peter Hubertus, a farmer residing about two wiles north of Beaver Cross- 
ing, in -L- precinct, went to the field about 6 o'clo:k Friday evening. April 
3, 1896, to relieve one of his boys who was running a stalk cutter. He 
took charge of the machine, which was being drawn by a team of younf, 
spirited horses, and soon after starting them a dog after a rabbit frightened 
them and they started to run. Mr. Hubertus was thrown off and one of 
his feet becoming caught in the machine he was dragged until the leg was 
mangled in a terrible manner. His family managed to get him to the house 
and summoned Dr. Doty who amputated the shattered leg, but on account 
of the loss of blood and internal injuries the unfortunate man did not regain 
consciousness, lingering until the next morning when death relieved him of 
his suffering. He left a wife and several sons and daughters to mour.n the 
sad departure of a husband and father. 

LEWIS J. GRAUL, 

Lewis J. Graul, a homestead settler in -K- precinct was killed in his 
barn yard by lightening. May 20, 1897. A wife and several sons ard 
daughters survived him. Mr. Graul was for severl years a neighbor of the 
writer, and known to be a kind and honorable ciuze.i. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 275 

DEATH OF ]EFF STEVENS IN 1871 AND 1915. 

The accidental death of two persons on the public highway, under simi- 
lar circumstances, both of the same name, seems more than ordinarly strange, 
and is an incident that perhaps will never occur in Seward county again. 
'Fhe unfortunate men were undoubtedly relatives. The date of the first 
accident together with the age of the latter victim shows that the first acci- 
dent occurred nine years previous to the birth of the second person. 

On the morning of July 6th, 1871, Jeff. Stevens, a resident six miles 
north-west of Milford, was found dead under a load of overturned lumber, 
about four miles east of Milford, near the Middle creek bridge. He left a 
V ife and ten children to mourn the untimely death of a husband and father. 

On the morning of January 12, 1915, Jeff. Stevens, who resided about 
seven miles south-west of Seward, was found about one mile west of his 
home, in a ditch at the end of a high culvert, dead under his horse and 
buggy. He had left Goehner about nine oclock the evening before for his 
home. The horse was blind and evidently went so near the end of the cul- 
\'ert that the wheels on one side of the buggy ran off and tipped it with Mr. 
Stevens over in':o the ditch, and the tightening of the lines caused the horse 
to back off and fall upon them. The fall had disabled the horse so he was 
unable to move and laid on the unfortunate man all night. Mr. Stev- 
ens was born in Seward county, and was thirty-Hve years of age. He left 
a wife and five children to mourn his untimely doath. 

DEATH OF JOHN G. SALNAVE. 

John Ciilbert Salnave was killed by the kick of a horse, Monday, Augu' t 
31, 1891. He was engaged at work with a team of horses for Dewit Eager 
and after feeding the animals at noon hi passed behind one of them and to 
make it stand over, slapped it on the rump when the horse kicked, striking 
I im in the abdomain. He lingered between life and death until Tuesday, 
about twentv-foi:r hour;, when he passed away from his suffering. John 
was a single man, thirty-nine years, eight months and four days of age, 
a son of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Salnave who settled on a homestead in -L- 
precinct in 1869. H s father and mother having preceded him to rest, he 
left to mourn his untimely death, one borother, B. F. Salnave of North Che- 
niL:ng, N. Y., and six sisters; Annett, wife of W illiam Rumsey, Lucey A., 
wife of O. C Fish, both of Beavtr Crossing, Lydia M., wife of J. H. 
\\ aterman of Friend, Nebraska, Ma;garet J., wife of Paton Dillon, Lenora, 
wife of Chris. Maurer, and Pamelia Grace, wife of Edward C. Lanning, all 
cf Lexington, Nebraska. His sisters and husbands were all in attendance 
at the funeral, September 3, 1891, cor.dcted by Rev. J. P. Ash. 



276 HISrORV OF SF;\VARD county. NF.BRy\SKA. 

POISONING OF THE W. D. CAMP FAMILY. 

One day in the latter part of May 1895, the family of W . I). Camp, 
residing one mile and a half north of Beaver Crossing, in -L- precinct, 
was poisoned by eating greens. Medical aid brought the older members of 
the family, Mr. and Mrs. Camp and his mother, Lucia Camp, through the 
afliction, but the three children were seriously effected and confined to bed 
several davs, the younger one, Dwight. dieing from its effects, Monday, 
May 27, 1895. 

LITTLE MERWIN TUCKER. 

A very sad accident in the drowning of Merwin Tucker, small son of 
Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Tucker, of Beaver Crossing, occurred on July 19, 1914. 
He with his parents, playmates and friends assembled at the river just west 
of Beaver Crossing on a picnic and fishing outing, and amidst the exciting 
pleasure of the occasion, while with other children at some distance from 
his parents the unfortunate boy slipped and fell down a steep bank into the 
water and met his death before assistance could reach him. In the struggle 
of the father to rescue his boy, being unable to swim he was only saved 
from drowning by the assistance of others of the party. Merwin was born 
at Pleasanton, Nebraska, April 3, 1908, and was 6 years, 3 months and 26 
days old at the time of his death. 

"1 connot say, and 1 will not say 
That he is dead. He is just away ! 
\\ ith a cheery smile and a wave of the hand, 
He has wandered into an unknown land. 
And left us dreaming how very fair 
It needs must be, since he lingers there. 
And you — oh, you who the wildest yearn 
For the old time step and the glad return — 
Think of him faring on, as dear 
In the love of There as the love of Here; 
Think of him still as the same, 1 say; 
He is not dead; he is just — away!" 

FLOREN GEIGEP. 

Floren Geiger, a Cierman farmer and an early settler in -L- precinct, 
went to Utica, Friday, June 16, 1894, after a load of lumber. He started 
home with his loaded wagon, setting on top of it using a keg of nails for a 
seat. \N hen almost lo his home, in going down a hil! the lumber slipped 



HISTORY OF SKVVARU COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 277 

forward, "Striking; and fnghteiiiiio; the horses and they started to run. 7 he 
keg of nails tipped with Mr. (ieiger and he fell under the wag:on, the wheels 
passing over his chest killed him instantly. He left a family of wife and 
children. 

ALFERD PALMER. 

Alfred Palmer, or more properly Alfred Street, was a very weak minded 
young man who had lived all of his life with Mr. and Mrs. A. j. Palmer, 
pioneer homesteaders in -L- precinct. After Mr. Palmer's death in 1887, 
Alfred formed a habit of roaming over the neighborhood and would fre- 
qi.e.nly forget the way home. He would enter anybodvs house without 
the formality of knocking at the door. On March 30, 1896 he wandred to 
the residence of Patrick Smith, about three miles south-west of his home 
where he remained until early the next morning when he left to go home. 
Mr. Smith went nearly to his home with him and until he thought Alfred 
would find the ballance of the way, but he did not find his home and wan- 
dered around until he got onto the Northwestern rail road track just ahead 
of the south bound freight train. This was a new sight to him and he was 
seen, by the engineer, advancing towards it. Thinking the man would step 
to one side the engineer paid no attention until nearly to him when he be- 
came alarmed and reversed his engine, throwing on all the breaks in an 
effort to stop the train and at the same time giving the warning whistle. 
The man continued to advance until within a few yards of the engine, 
throwing his arms in an uninteligible manner and then turned to run the 
other way, but did not Uaxe the track. He made but a few steps when the 
front guard struck him and he fell back upon the cow catcher, striking his 
head against the front end of the engine, crushing his skull. The train crew 
picked him up and took him on to Beaver Crossing and Dr. Doty was sum- 
moned, but found him past all human help. He was placed in the depot 
where he remained nearly all day before anybody was able to recognize him. 
Undoubtedly Alfred was acting in the strange way he did, and throwing 
his arms so misteriously to banter the train for a race, and had no idea it 
could catch him. 

LEONARD WEIBLY. 

Leonard X^'eibly, of Cordova was drowned in the \\ est Blue river uhile 
bathing with companions, July 8, 1893. It was thought that he was taken 
u'ith a cramp while in deep water and it being dark, in the evening his com_ 
panions were not aware of his condition until too late to render him assist- 
ariLe. He was 34 years, I month and 2 days, of age. 



278 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

FRED FEIGIN KILLED. 

Fred.' Feigin, a farmer residing two miles south of Seward, an early set- 
tler, was killed by a train of cars upon which he had been a passenger to 
Tamora. He had arrived at Tamora when the accident happened and it 
was thought that in trying to get off of the car before the train stopped he 
had been thrown under the wheels, but it is probable that he lost his bal- 
lance and fell off of the platform between the cars, the rear car tunning 
over him. He had been a resident of Seward county for thirty years. A 
wife and two children were left to mourn his untimelv death. 

DROWNED. 

While bathing in the river just south of Beaver Crossing, Kmil Martsen, 
a young man, was drowned, June 19, 1898. 

In August 1899, Clifford Heizart, a boy about fifteen years old, resident 
of Beaver Crossing, was drowned in the river, west of the village. He was 
subject to fits and was at the river alone and it was thought that he fell in 
the water while in a fit. 

William TJarks, a young man seventeen years old, of Dunbury, Ne- 
braska, in company with Emil Honbrock. a young man of the same place 
and Wm Sherwood of -L- prec-inct, were in the river bathing, just south of 
the depot at Beaver Crossing, July 7, 1893, when young TJarks started to 
wade accross the stream and when near the middle he stepped into deep 
water and was drowned. His companions both being unable to swim 
could render no assistance. 

Near Mayrsville, in -C- precinct, in June, 1882, a young man named 
Mentz, while plowing corn, was dragged into the millpond by his team 
and was drowed with his horses. 

Leonard Goettler, a young man, was drowned while bathing in a creek 
four miles south-west of Seward, June 12, 1887. 

Peter Gerken was drowned in the river just south of Sewaod, July 15, 
1874, while bathing. 

Tim Lacker fell into the river at Milford while fishing and was drown- 
ed, June 15, 1901. 

James Arnell, an old soldier inmate of the Soldiers Home at Milford was 
drowned in the river near the Home, Sunday, April 13, 1913. 

John Cavanaugh, another comrade inmate of the Soldiers Home at MiL 
ford, was drowned m the river near the Home, December 13, 1913. 



HISTORY OF SF.WARD COUNTY. NKHRASKA. 279 

REV. WILLIAM MURPHY. 

Rev. Father Murphy, pastor of the Catholic church at Beaver Crossing 
was killed ahout two miles north-west of that village, by the overturning of 
his automobile, November 7, 1913. He was driving fast and overtaking a 
buggy he made an effort to pass it and turned into a deeb ditch which caus- 
ed the accident. Rev. Murphy was well known throughout Nebarska, and 
held in high esteem by the general public, regardless of r^'ligious creeds. 
His aim seemed to consist in living a true christian life and to do good to 
any and all whom he came in contact with. 

SHOOTING ACCIDENT. 

Alfonzo Mellick, a thirteen year old boy uho resided with his parents 
on a farm south of Pleasant Dale, accidently shot himself while trying to 
mount a horse with a loaded gun. He was away from home and failing to 
return his father searched for him, finding his dead body, Saturday after- 
noon, February 15, 1902. 

WILLIAM ALLISON KILLED. 

William Allison, son of Mr. and Mrs. L. L. Allison, 1869 homestead 
settlers in -K- precinct, who spent the greater part of his life in Seward 
county, was accidently killed by an engine in the railway yards in \\''est 
Lincoln, Saturday, July 15, 1905. He was employed by the B. & M. rail 
road compa'ny and was on duty at the time of the accident. A father and 
tv^o brothtrs survived him, his mother having died some time previous. 

KILLED IN HARVEST FIELD. 

Herman W'ebermeir was the victim of a fatal accident in his harvest field 
July 25, 1903. He was running a harvester and something got out of or- 
der with the harness on one of the horses and he stepped out on the tongue 
of the machine between the horses to fix the harness, which frightened them 
and they started to run, he falling to the ground in front of the ma- 
chine which passed over his body. He died that evening at eleven o'clock. 
Mr. \\ ebermeir was a resident of -N- precinct where he owned a large 
farm and was a progressive and prosperous farmer. He left a family. 

NICK SPRINGER. 

On October 3, 1915, Nick Springer, twenty-one years old, son of Val- 
entine Springer, residing eight miles south-east of Seward, was found dead 
in the Blue river near his home. He had gone hunting and had been riding 
in a boat and when he picked up the gun to leave the boat it was thought 
it uas accidently discharged, the ball entering his head. 



280 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 

FROZEN TO DEATH- 

January 15, 1893, a (jerman gentleman, named Schull, about seventy 
years of age, residing near Milford, started to walk up the railroad track 
from East Milford to attend the dedication of a new German Lutheran 
Church near Ruby, about six miles distant. He did not reach the church 
and after the close of the services his dead body was found, frozen stiff, 
within about half a mile of it. He was in feble health and it was thought 
that he had become exhausted by the walk facing a cold north u ind and 
set down, frezing to death. 

THE SCHULTZ TR.\GE1)V. 

The most heart rending accident knovxn in Seward county occurred 
near Goehner, W'ednesday evening, October 30, 1903. F. Schuhz went 
to the field, a short distance from his house, to mow some grass, and un- 
observed by him, his almost infant daughter followed him and thinking to 
play a joke upon him, hid in a bunch of tall grass in the way of the cicle 
of the machine and her father was not aware that she was even in the field 
until the knives had run upon her and severed both of her feet. Physicians 
were soon in attendance and did all that was possible to save her life, but 
the little sufFerer passed to the one who said "suffer little children to come 
unto me," in the early morning of the next day. 

FIVE VOUNG MEN KILLED BV LIGirrXIXG. 

On Sunday, July 6, 1899, five young nic-n were riding in a buggy north 
of Staplehurst, when a storm overtook them and lightening striking their ng, 
killed all of them. Iheir names were: Victor Dobson, ira Dobson, John 
Ames, Thomas Bidwell and Herman Egars. Ihey lived in the vicinity of 
Staplehurst and were trying to reach home before the storm. 

OTTO IIALLSTEIX KILLED BV TRAIN. 

Otto Hallstein, nineteen year old son of Mr. and Mrs. George Hallstein 
residing near Goehner, was instantly killed by a B. & M. railway train at 
the crossing one mile north of Seward, Wednesday morning, March 18, 
1903. The young man had attended a dance at Bee and had taken Ada 
Wickersham to her home, about one mile and a half east of where the 
accident occurred, in his buggy, and then started for his home, and the re- 
turn of the horses there without the buggv or driver aroused suspicion of his 
friends and a brother who went to look for him found the vehicle torn to 
peices and the lifeless body of his brothet laying near the track. 1 he horses 
wtre not iniured. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 281 

Claud Smith, a thirteen year old boy, started to cross the rail road in 
front of a train near Utica, May 2^, 1887, and was run over and killed. 

Frank D. Grant, son of an -N- precinct pioneer, was dragged to death 
by a runaway horse, his foot becoming caught in the stirrup of the saddle, 
July 24, 1879. 

October 16, 1879, Miss Lizzie \V elty, residing near Seward, lost her 
life by the accidental discharge of a gun. 

A ten year old son of M. Minsell, of -A- precinct, was killed by the 
accidental discharge of a gun, November 18, 1897. 

An accidental shooting occurred at Utica, November 8, 1898 by which 
a twelve year old son of Joseph Manweiler, of that place, lost his life. 

Claudius Roberts, a Seward boy, was accidently shot and killed at Og- 
den, Utah, July 20, 1903. 

April 20, 1901 a little son of C,'harles Dingman, of Seward, was burned 
to death; fire having accidently caught in his clothing. 

July 9, 1901 a little son of Mrs. B. Robottom, living near Germantown 
was killed by the kick of a horse. 

Charles Prest, of -H- precent was killed October 12, 1899 by a fall from 
a load of lumber. 

in August 1899 Samuel Manley, of Seward, was killed in Montana by 
a bronco pony he was trying to ride. He was brought home to Seward 
for burrial. 

Fredrick Beckman, a farmer residing near Germantown, was killed July 
7, 1895, by the kick of one of the horses he was working with in his Held 

William A. Thomas, a resident of Bee, lost his life on a street of Daven- 
port. Iowa, where he was visiting friends, April 18, 1904, by being acci- 
dently thrown from a bicycle he was riding, in front of a street car. He 
was brought home to Bee and hurried in one of the cemeteries at Seward. 

On Sunday, June 4,1916, D. L. Adams, residing about a mile south-west 
of Beaver Crossing, sustained injuries in an automobile accident which re- 
sulted in his death fifteen days later. He was sixty-five years and two 
months of age. A wife and several sons and daughters survived him. 

April 22, 1880, Ira Windall lost his life by being caught in the machin- 
ery in the mill at West Mills. He left a wife and two children to mourn 
the tragic death of a kind husband and father. 

April 22, 1897, a young son of Loren Jensen, residing near Germantown 
was instantly killed by being thrown from and under a stalk cutter. 
(Correct date of drowning of Wm.TJarks.page 278, July 7,191 1. ) 



282 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 

The seven year old son of \\ illiam Teuscher, of J- precinct was run 
over and killed by the water tank of a traction engine, Tuesday, November 
6, 1906. The boy was at school and having been dismissed for recess was 
playing with other children around the machine. W hile trying to ride on 
the tongue of the wagon he fell off and before the engine could be stopped 
the wheels pa^,ssed over his body. 

W'm. J. Hannah an early settler in -L- precinct was kicked by one of 
his work horses in the abdomain, and after intense suffering for eleven days 
was relieved by death, August 23, 1912. A wife and several grown sons 
and daughters survived him. 

Frank Hedge, a voung man twenty-six years old, a resident of Seward, 
was drov\ned in the Blue river at that place, Friday, June 2.'^, 1916, while 
bathing with a companion. 

Wm. A. Pierce, a former Staplehurst boy, son of Mr. and Mrs. S. L. 
Pierce, early residents of that place, was crushed by the cars at Ashland, 
Nebraska, Tuesday, May 23, 1906, and died shortly after the accident, 
aged twenty-three vears. His remains were entered in a Seward cemetery. 

W'm. 13. Bowers, a pioneer settler in the city of Seward, and well known 
by a majority of Seward county settlers, was found dead m his bed April 27 
1891. He had been in failing health several months. 

Frank Oldenberg, for many years a resident of Seward, and familiarly 
known as "Dutch Frank," being for some time in failing health was cared 
for at the county poor farm where he was found on the morning of May 
6, 1901, dead in his bed. 

William Ladwig of Seward died November 25, 1914, from the effects 
of burns received twenty-four hours previous. His clothing caught tire from 
a blazing paper which blew against him while in an alley. He was one of 
Seward county's earliest pioneers, who had been a resident of it forty-five 
years. He was eighty-seven years of age. Two sons and two daughters 
survived him. 

Fred Meyer, a farmer residing one mile north of Seward, received fatal 
injuries in a runaway accident near the Northwestern depot, Saturday, Oc- 
tober 31, 1903, from which he died the next day. The team was a pair of 
mules which became frightened at a railway train. 

April 1, 1897, Ray Vance met an accidental death while attempting to 
board a moving train at Utica. 

October 1. 1900, E. E. Mitchell, residing six miles north of Cierman- 
town was killed by lightening. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 283 

April 15, 1901, Mrs. Christiana Obermeyer, wife of W'. B. Obermeyer 
of Beaver Crossing, lost her life in an Omaha hotel bv asphyxiation ^froni 
an open gass jet. 

July 11, 1876, Lizzie Cjray of -B- precinct was killed by a runaway 
horse. 

February 5, 1900, a two year old child of Herman Lang:':'r, of Seward, 
was scalded to death, and March 5, 1900 a three year old child of L. G. 
Soverign, of Ruby, was burned to death. 

SUICIDES OK SEWARD COUNTY CITIZENS. 

- There is no class of unfortunates for whom there seems to be so much 
room for double sympathy as that class known as suicides. The frightful 
mental strain and anguish leading up to and prompting the act of self de- 
struction can only be understood by those who have yielded to its influence. 
And following this is the ending of the most precious gift CJod has given to 
humanity in some tragic and violent manner. The voluntary last sepera- 
tion from loved kindered and friends, together with the self willed "leap in 
the dark," down through the valley and shadow of death, cannot be attrib- 
uted to sanity nor charged against insanity as an offense. In the loss of 
reason may always be found a diseased brain which is no more offense than 
a diseased body, and in this misfortune lies the cause of the suicide's death. 

Conrad Reush, while in a state of mental excitement, took his own life, 
at Pleasant Dale, April 15, 1899. 

Phil Bridenbaugh, of -N- precinct, was the victim of self destruction, in 
a fit of despondency, July 9, 1900. 

W. S. W'allick, an 1875 settler in -F- precinct, took his own life by 
shooting himself in the temple with a 32-calibre revolver, at 1 amora, Tues- 
day morning, March 10, 1914. 

Fred Wimken, a farmer who resided six miles south-west of Utica, hung 
himself Friday morning. May 5, 1893. The cause for his act of self de- 
struction has never been understood. He was financially well rixed, out of 
debt and had no family or neighborhood trouble. 

Harry A. French, a long time station agent at Utica, committed suicide 
by shooting himself at Ashland, Nebraska, Monday, April 5, 1915. His 
rash act was attributed to despondency over ill health. 

John Doody, an early settler on the north-east quarter of section 22, -L- 
precinct, was found dead in his bed, January 13, 1878. He was a bachelor 
living alone, and his death was undoubtedly due to self administered poison. 



2)^4 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 

MRS. A. L. JOHNSTON. 

Mrs. A. L. [ohnston, an aged widow lady, living alone in Beaver Cross- 
ing, committed suicide by hanging herself in an outhouse of her home, 
Wednesday night, June 26, 1901. Her lifeless body was discovered hang- 
ing in front of the door, Thursday morning by .Mrs. \\ . A. \\ ilsey who 
lived near Mrs. Johnstons home. Despondency over her lonleyness was 
e\idently the cause of her act of self destruction. She was the mother of 
three sons all surviving her. 

SUICIDED IN JAIL. 

Hugh R. Fullerton, a young man confined in the jail at Seward, com- 
mitted suicide by hanging himself with a rope constructed of a pair of draw- 
ers, Saturday, April 14, 1894. He left a short note to his father as follows: 
"\^'ell father I have waited for you till I can't wait any longer. 1 want 
you to take me back home and lay me by the side of my brother, so 1 will 
bid you all goodbye. 1 would sooner be dead than shut up in a cage. 

H. R. Fullerton." 

BURNED HIMSELF TO DEATH. 

William R. Connor, twenty years old, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Con- 
nor of -A- precinct, destroyed his own life, Saturday night, August 24, 1906 
bv burning himself to death m his father's barn. Fhere was a disagreement 
existing between the young man and his father and he had left home in the 
spring. He returned home about two weeks prior to the tragedy, l:»ut 
there was still a feeling of disagreement between them which see'med diffi- 
cult to become reconciled. He tried to borrow a revolver and failing to do 
so, resorted to the terrible manner named, of ending his trouble. He left a 
note which was afterwards found, stating his intention to burn himself and 
the barn together. 

JOHN MUIR SUICIDE. 

Despondent over financial diHculties and the death of a babv daughter, 
John Muir, one of the early settlers of Milford, took his own life by firing 
four shots into the right side of his body ftom a 32-calibre revolver, Septem- 
ber 30, 1902. He left a note directing th-j disposition of his life insurance, 
amounting to four thousand dollars, which he wished divided equally be- 
tween his wife and little son. 

John Tucker drowned himself in Conelley's fish pond, five miles 
west of Seward, .May 30, 1901. He was suffering with a despairing fit of 
insanity, resulting in self destruction. 



HISTORY OF SFAVARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 285 

MARY A. WHITE. 

Mary A. White, ag;ed sixty- five years, committed suicide by taking: 
strychnine, Monday afternoon, September 25, 1899, at the home of her sis- 
ter, Mrs. Neff, who lived twelve miles north of Seward. Mr. and Mrs. 
Neff had been at Seward during the day and were greatly shocked at the 
sad occurance, both being very old people. A nephiew to whom she told 
that she had taken the poison, ran to a neighbor's and gave the alarm, a 
physicion being immediatly summoned, but he arrived too late. 

KILEY HORNADV. 

Riley Hornady, an 1882 pioneer settler in Seward county, commited 
suicide by taking carbolic acid, Tuesday morning, August 29, 1916 at 
Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he had moved in April to enter the mercantile 
trade. He was fifty-seven years and six months of age, and left a wife, 
four sons and one daughter to mourn his sad death. Mr. Hornady was a 
near neighbor to the writer for a period of nine years, in the village of 
l^eaver Crossing, and we knew him as a man of exemplar habits, cheerful 
disposition, innofensive and kind. He was an able farmer and as such, 
combined with a financial ability, had accumulated sufficient means for the 
comfortable support of his family and to enable him to spend the remainder 
of his days in ease and comfort. He had made a good home in Beaver 
Crossing to which he was personally attached, the attractiveness of which 
w ith what seemed to him an abandonment of it in a fruitless business effort 
which had no encouraging prospects for him, with other disappointing and 
discouragirg matters, helped to sink his previous cheerful mind into that 
dispondent state which prompted self destruction. A short time before his 
fatal deed he visited his Beaver Crossing home and spent several hours with 
the writer, during which time he freely expressed his desire to return to his 
home to stay, declaring his mistake in listening to the advice of others to 
enter into a loosing deal in trade. In his death we feel that another of 
(jod's noble men, whose face was always lit up with a kindly smile, has 
passed to the great city beyond the silent river. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



Soldier Element in the Early Settlement of Seward County. A Closing 
Glance at the Early Advance Guards of Civilization. An Eloquent 
Narration of Pioneer Achievements From the Omaha Bee — Prompt- 
ings of the Semi-centenial Celebration of Nebraska's Statehood. 



In the late sixties and early seventies Seward county was 
comparatilvely a bee-hive swarming with Union soldiers, rem- 
inents from the fields of Anteitam, Atlanta, Stone River, 
Shiloah, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, the Andersonville stockades 
and many other places renouned in history for scenes of 
conflict and prison horrors. The county could well claim to 
be the camp ground of a large brigade of that grand army 
that kept "Old Glory" undivided and floating in the breeze, 
and made it represent, at last, a real free and undivided 
country. The number of this indomitable band of home- 
seekers which settled in Seward county is not and perhaps 
never will be fully known, but beneath its sod, on the last 
camp ground are sleeping those who have answered the last 
roll call, while the fast depleting ranks of remaining com- 
rades press forward to pitch their tents uj^on the held with 
those gone before. 

While we realize our inability to give a complete list of 
the dead and living vetran soldiers of the war of the rebellion 
who were early settlers in Seward county, we present the fol- 
lowing statement of the number of well known dead, there 
being perhaps an equal number throught the county that 
are not accounted for: 

In the cemeteries at Seward there are resting in their last 
sleep, ninety-two comrades. In the Ruby, Staplehurst and 
Germantovvn cemeteries there has been fifteen accounted for 
while in the Beaver Crossing, Utica and Milford cemeteries 
there are forty-six more, making a total of one hundred and 
fiftv-three dead. Many of the soldier pioneers of Seward 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 287 

county have moved away, some to other countie;^ and some 
to other states where many of them are tenting upon the new 
camp ground. It is perhaps a fair estimate to sa^^ there are 
one fifth of the squad of old soldier settlers in Seward countv 
that can be counted as living at the present time, October 
19 1 6. Those living comrades who settled upon homesteads 
in pioneer days have nearly all retired from their farms to the 
towns and it is to be noted that there is not a sufficient num- 
ber in any one of the villages for a quorum in a G. A. R. 
Post. Cordova has but one old soldier of the war of the re- 
bellion, and the Beaver Crossing post which had at one time 
about thirty members, was forced to surender its charter 
several years ago on account of insufficient numbers for a 
quorum — ^nine members. Surely these signs signify some- 
thing. The old boys are silently passing away. 

There are perhaps not one of the dead or living comrades 
who settled in Seward county whose services are not worth}'^ 
of special mention, but we are not personally acquainted with 
the facts only in a limited number of cases throught the 
county. Of those burried at Seward we will mention Wm. 
W. Konkright, who enlisted in the 8th Iowa Infantry, August 
17, 1861, being one of the first volunteers for the war of the 
rebellion and was mustered out of the service, April 20, 
1866, at Selma, Alabama, having served four years and eight 
months. During this time Mr. Konkright participated in 
eighteen regular battles and thirteen skirmishes, and was 
one who passed safely through the great conflict. Isaac D. 
Neihardt, enlisted early in the war as a private and was pro- 
moted several times, reaching the rank of captain. Took 
part in many battles, being wounded in 1864, and was must- 
ered out of the service in May, 1866. 

Chas Emerson who settled on a homestead m-L-precinct 
in 1870, enlisted in an Indiana regiment upon the breaking 
out of the war and served to its close, participated in seven- 



2H8- HrSTO'RV OF SEWARD COUNTY.-NEBRASKA. 

teen general battles, marched with Sherman through- Georgia' 
to the sea, was not wounded and did not spend a da\' in a 
hospital. Comrade Emerson died at Tamora in 1896. 

George H. VVinand, for many years a resident of Beaver 
Crossing, now resting in its cemetery, saw much service in 
the field during the war, and had the unenviable experience 
of being a guest of Captain Werz, in his Andersoville prison 
several months. Comrade Wmand had formed a great dis- 
respect for his landlord and expressed no emotional senti- 
ments of regrets because he, "the meanest man on earth" 
had been hung, only that he was not hung soon enough. 

Victor Vifquain, previously mentioned in this work, was 
the only representative of Seward county in the Union army 
during the war of the rebellion. And he left no cause for his 
countv or state to feel dishonored by his services. In fact 
he mounted the upward steps of fame for valuable and heroic 
service as rapidly as most any other man in the army, and 
returned to his home bearing the well earned, honorable title 
of General Vifquain. 

SPANISH WAR VETERANS IN SEWARD COUNTV. 

Seward county furnished a number of soldiers for the war 
with Spain who went where duty called them. Some lost 
their lives and many their health. One of the former, Orson 
E. Humphery, previously mentioned in this history, was a 
son of an 1861 veteran. And it has been a matter of pride 
to the old soldiers to know that the sons of Seward county, 
if not their own sons, stood ready to take from their feble 
and trembling hands that starry emblem known to them as 
"Old Glory," and place new honors upon its folds through- 
out the civilized world. And in this grand achievement of 
the younger "boys in blue" the older ones view a new victory 
gained from their school of patriotism and all are glad to 
honor and cherish the deeds of the boys of the "Spanish war." 



HISTORY OF SF.WARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 289 

FOOT PRINTS OF PIONEER TIMES. 

As the final closing of this history approaches in this, the 
sixteenth year of the twentieth century, we are reminded of 
the flight of time by it and also by the demonstrative prepar- 
ation of Nebraska's citizens to celebrate the semi-centenial 
of the state's statehood. And we review the chain of event- 
ful time from the period of the red man's dominion as lord 
and king, in vain search for a missing link in the onward 
march of progress. 

While we are unable to even make an outline of the great 
display of modern thought and inventive attractions that will 
round out a full and appropriate program of that historic 
event, the first part of which was recently rendered in the 
city of Omaha, we can point back with pride to the foot- 
prints of the pioneers in their endavors to lay the foundation 
upon which this great commonwealth rests today, and for 
which proud rejoicings are echoing and to re-echo throughout 
the nation. And along this line we are pleased to quote up- 
on the pages of this history the following able and eloquent 
tribute of appreciation of the courage, fortitude and endur- 
ance of the people who with primitive methods and means, 
were the advance guards of civilization, from the Omaha Bee 
of October 8, 1916, prompted by the grand desplay of that 
part of the program, carried out by that city, of the semi- 
centenial historical exhibition. 

A MESSAGE OF PRIDE. 

"The magnificient moving picture of western progress 
Staged on the streets of Omaha in honor of the semi-centen- 
ial of Nebraska's statehood carried a message of pride to 
hearts that revere the deeds of pioneers. Not in the prehis- 
toric fioats, the legions of Coronado, nor in the figures of 
trappers and fur traders, was the message glimpsed, nor yet 
in the gorgeous colors of statehood's fruition. It threaded 
through and linked up the primitive tools and vehicles with 



290 HISTORY OF SFWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA. 

which pioneer settlers trekked over prairies, deserts and 
mountains, uncovered the treasure houses of gold and silver 
and transformed the wilderness into fruitful fields. 

"The prairie schooner and the patient plodding ox teams 
are as a mirage of long ago, almost unreal to people of an au- 
tomobile age. Yet they carried both power and sustenance, 
combined the pull and the meat, and enabled the pioneer to 
reach his destmation. While lacking the speed of the horse 
and the mule, the ox team was well within the average re- 
sources of the home and fortune seekers, and thus became 
linked with the forces which im})lanted civilization in the west. 

"These typical instrumentalities of western settlement 
merely glimpse the courage and fortitude of the men and 
women who employed them in their (|uest for material bet- 
terment. The hardships of primitive shelters, the struggle 
to wring from virgin soil uncertain crops, the lonely vigils in 
a hostile country, and the great distances which too often 
prevented neighborly co-operation — all these and more united 
in testing the strength, confidence and determination of the 
empire makers. Their dauntless courage and sublime faith 
in the future shone forth with equal luster in the trek of Mor- 
mon converts behind pushcarts from the Missouri river to 
Salt Lake. 

"There were heroes and heroines in the pioneer days. 
They were cast in large molds — large of heart, of generosity 
and of cheerfulness amid privations. Too many, unfortun- 
ately, filled nameless graves, succumbing to the rigors of cli- 
mate and primitive habitation, but those who overecame the 
hardships of the early days and lived to enjoy the fruition of 
their struggles deserved the crown and tribute of work nobly 
done." 

CLOSING OF OUR SEWARD COUNTY HISTORY. 

The closing of this work does not close Seward county 
historY which will continue to the end of time, but we trust 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 291 

that our efforts will aid others in producing records of past 
events, especially those which will never be repeated, their 
time and condition having passed to eternity and will never 
be known the second time, such as the sod hous^and dugout 
period together with the pioneer time in general. Ill health 
and other matters have combined to detain us in our work 
on this history. However it has proven to be a task that 
could not be accomplished in a day nor any other short pe- 
riod of time. While we are glad to say that it is done we 
cannot say we are entirely satisfied with it, and perhaps that 
is no exception to other authors in closing a work. 

Fully realizing the fact that in these days of speed and 
hurry people do not care to read extended articles we have 
condenced the matter as much as details of facts will permit. 
No printer can reliably read and correct the proof of his 
own work, but we trust that our little errors, though many, may 
for that reason, not be taken seriously nor draw attention of 
readers from the interesting features of the work. 

We wish to extend our sincere thanks to Editor E. A. 
McNeil for his kindly assistance in the art features of this 
history. And we hold in greatful rememberance the valu- 
able and kind assistance in compiling it, rendered by Lewis 
S. Konkright of Seward. 



INDEX TO CHAPTERS AND CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. Introductry. The vast plains area. The 
Path Finder and his path the artery of civilization west 
of the Missouri river. The California Trail, etc. Pages 1 ~ 3. 

CHAPIER 11. Nebraska, territorial area and organiza- 
tion. 1 he State. Area, rivers, land, counties etc. Ad- 
mission to the Lhiion. " 4~ 6. 

CHAPTER 111. Seward County — 1 ts boundries, territory, 

population etc. Beaver Crossi ng — Its name — From 

what derived. The freight route. Historical Steam 

Wagon Road. " 5__ 9. 

CHAPTER l\^ Seward county's name. Its climate. — 

Cjeneral homesteads, soldier's homesteads and railroad 

land. Homestead law. Amos Reed's tract. The 

water. Springs and flowing wells. " 10—16 

CHAPTER V. The soil of Seward county. Indigen- 
ous people, wild game, Hsh and pests. Disappear be- 
fore approaching civilization. "• 17—20 

CHAPTER VI. Origin of the (jreat American Desert's 
name. Drouth, dust and sand storms. Rain, snow and 
wind storms. "- i 21—30 

CHAPTER VI 1. Beaver Crossing's first settlement a 
result of the civil war. The ranchers. John E. Fouse, 
Daniel Millspaw, William J. 1 hompson and Roland 
Reed. " 31..35 

CHAPTER VIll. Agriculture in pioneer days. Hazardous 
experiments improve productions. Disadvantageous 
early markets. " .%._43 

CHAPTER IX. Breaking prairie. Sod houses and dug- 
outs. How to build them. Pages 44--48 

CHAPTER X. Amusements. A popular song by two 
popular young men. A 4th of July celebration of pio- 
neer type. " 49__54_ 

CHAPTER XI, The timber craze of the first settlers. 

W ind breaks for orchards. Fruit. " 55—57 

CHAHTER Xll. Beaver Crossing. Pioneer postoffices 
and postmasters. Star route served on back of broncho. 



Index to Chapters and Contents 

Resver Crossing mo\eci. Its name and new location a 

misfit — A story. Pages 58—68 

CHPTERXIIL Pioneer towns. Stores, saw and grist 

mills. Bridges and highways. ' 69—82 

CHAPTER XIV. Pioneer schools of Seward County. " 83-88 

CHAPTER Xy. Ordinary rustomes, habits, dress, and 

foods of the pitnieer cetizens of Seward county. 89—91 

CHAPTER XV'l. Pioneer horses, mules and work cattle. 

Grasshoppers. 92—98 

CHAPTER XVll. Exciting rail road bond campaign "of 

1871. " 99-106 

CH.AP EER XVll I. Church conditions in pioneer times 

in Seward county. ' 106—108 

CHAPEER XIX. Past and present political events and 

conditions in Sev\ard county. 109—113 

CHAPTER XX. Criminality. Nathan Clough, George 
f>. iMonroe and other murders committed in Seward 
county. " 114-128 

CHAPTER XXI The precincts -their location by govern- 
ment survey -Range and Town numbers. Precinct 
representation on county board. Its change. 129-T38 

CHAPTER XXII. W. VV. Cox and his history of Seward 
county, its dedication. His daughter's touching por- 
tray of her pioneer childhood home. 139—145 

CHAPTER XXIIl. Seward county's newspapers. " 146—151 

CHAPTER XXIV. Early official conditions in Seward 
county. The first election. First board of county 
commissioners and county officals. Tax asseeements 
and collections. 152—154 

CHAPTER XXV, Precinct settlements and Pioneer Set- 
tlers. " 155-172 
CHAPTER XXVI. The Mirage. " 172-174 
CHAPTER XXVII. Deaths of Seward county pioneers. " 175—191 

CHAPTER XXVIII. Seward county .Agricultural Society 

and other societies and lodges. 202—204 



Index to Chapters and Contents. 



CAHPTER XXIX. Notable advancements in prosperity 
leading up from pioneer times to the great changes to 
modern times. Pages 203—209 

CHAP TER XXX. A reflection and backward glance at 

pioneer days gone by. " 210—212 

CHAPl ER XXXI. The changes from pioneer conditions 
to those of the new era. A startling prophetic vision 
of the golden future upon the great expanse of the 
Western Plains of 1866. " 213-216 

CHAPTER XXXII. Seward County — Its towns, post- 
office^, schools, etc, after the changes from pioneer con- 
ditions. " 217-247 

CHAPTER XXXIIl. The Chicago & Nort Western Rail 

Road in Seward County. " 248-249 

CHAPTER XXXIV. Seward county farms and farmers. 
The county's agricultural wealth. Extended drouth 
period. Schools and school system. Gold excitement " 250—253 

CHAPTER XXXV. Miscellaneous items. Produce sta- 
tistics of mid-pioneer period. F^irst marriages in Sew- 
ard county. Rattlesnakes more dangerous than Indi- 
ans. Seward county court house and courthouse prop- 
ositions. Death of Etta Shattuck. Rememberance of 
Henry Cashier. " 254—262 

CHAPTER XXXVI. Beaver Crossing Telephone Com- 
pany and its changes. Additional early settlers. " 263—268 

CHAPTER XXXVII. Additional list of deaths of early 
settlers. Eatal accidents and untimely deaths. Sui- 
cides. " 267-285 

CHAPTER XXXVin. Soldier aliment in the early settle- 
ment. Glance at the advance guards of civilization. 
An eloquent narraation of pioneer accheivements from 
the Omaha Bee — promptings of the Semi-centenial 
celebration of Nebraska's statehood. " 286—291 



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